


The Only Hope For Me Is You

by psychoroach



Category: Stephanie Plum - Janet Evanovich
Genre: Drama, F/M, Family Drama, Kidnapping, M/M, Mystery, Other, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Self-Discovery, Stephanie Plum/Lester Santos/Bobby Brown/Vince/Woody, pop culture references
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-19
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2017-12-24 01:38:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 45,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/933623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psychoroach/pseuds/psychoroach
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Angie and Mary Alice, Stephanie's two oldest nieces, get kidnapped, Stephanie gets pulled into the search for them before it's too late. Along the way, she finds an unconventional love, and herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Unwanted Conversation

**Author's Note:**

> This is a tart (Stephanie/Merry Man) story, and will involve a poly relationship (a relationship between more than two people). If this makes you uncomfortable in any way, turn back now. This is the only warning I will give. Also there will be talk about violence against minors, as well as child molestation. Neither will be physically present in the story, just talked about. Again, if it makes you uncomfortable, turn back now.

Letting myself into my apartment, I had to sigh as I heard the squish of my sneakers on the floor. It had been about a month since I had any bad run ins with skips so it was probably about time, but I was hoping my good karma would carry over for a while longer before anything bad happened. I let it get my guard down and got lulled into a false sense of security. Ranger always told me I needed to be more aware of my surroundings, and I could definitely hear him in my head as I took my shoes off by the door, telling me exactly that. "Oh shut up, Ranger." I muttered, heaving a sigh. 

"I haven't even said anything, Babe." A voice said from behind me. I gasped and whirled around, seeing the aforementioned thought of man standing in the middle of my living room, arms folded over his chest. I saw a ghost of a smile on his face and huffed. 

"Don't you dare laugh, Ranger Manoso." I grumbled, pointing my finger at him. It probably wasn't wise to act the way I did with Ranger sometimes, but I had the feeling I got away with a lot more than the average person did with him. Except possibly the ones he'd been working with the longest, and known the longest such as Tank, Bobby, Lester, and the rest of the core team that made up Rangeman...oh, and possibly Hector. I knew that Hector was one of those people no one liked to fuck with, but who would want to fuck with a man who had three tear drops tattooed just below his eye? Certainly not me, and I knew for a fact Hector actually liked me.

"Is that yogurt?" Ranger asked, eyeing a big glob that moved from my temple, down my hair, to fall onto the floor at my feet. 

"I'm fairly sure it's mayonnaise. I fell face first into a paper plate that had a few stray fries left on it." I said simply, folding my arms over my chest. It wasn't that I was angry, or anything, I just knew my shirt was gunky and damp and I didn't want Ranger to see that I wasn't wearing a bra.

...What? It was laundry day! Give me a break!

Ranger's lip twitched until my glare made him reign it in. "I was hoping I could talk to you." 

I looked down at myself. "Can I get a shower first?" 

Ranger smirked at that, his arms unfolding from his chest. "Do you need help with that?" 

Oh how I wanted to take him up on that. But that wasn't a good idea. I mean, Joe and I were on a permanent off phase, and I was fairly sure we were handling it well since he was dating a clerk from the mayor's office and had been for a few weeks now, but Ranger once told me the only commitment he could give me came with a condom, and not a ring. I wasn't the type that needed a ring, I wasn't even sure I wanted to get married again, actually. My brief marriage to Dickie Orr that ended when I went out to find matching chairs for our brand new kitchen table and came home to find him on said kitchen table plowing into Joyce Barnhardt, his flabby ass bouncing in a way that made me still unable to look at jell-o without wanting to throw it on the floor or against the wall, had put me off marriage permanently. In fact just the thought of getting married gave me hives, much in the same way that thinking about having children did. But still, I needed some type of commitment, and I wasn't sure Ranger was the type for that. Sure, he didn't go out and sleep with a different girl every night, but I also knew he had a lot of things he had to keep close to his chest and I just couldn't deal with that in the long run. It didn't mean Ranger wasn't a pretty picture to look at, and I still think about our one night together when I'm in the shower with my shower massager, but the rational part of my brain knew that being anything but concrete friends with the man was a bad idea and it would only lead to heartbreak on my end. 

"No." I finally said, breaking out of my mental rambling. "I think I can take care of it myself. Give me twenty." I left him standing in my living room, fully aware he could break into the bathroom even if I attempted to lock the bathroom door behind me. I looked in the mirror hanging over my sink and grimaced. "Better make that thirty!" I called, rolling my eyes when I heard him laugh. I turned and roughly turned the shower on, even if I was fighting my own smile. I stripped and got into the shower, trying to make quick work of getting clean. I didn't want Ranger barging in if I took too long. I made it with five minutes to spare of what I told him so I did a quick dry job with my hair and put it up in a bun before going back out to the living room. 

"Better." Ranger said when he saw me, looking me up and down. I rolled my eyes, wondering what he thought he was looking at. I'd thrown on some Mickey Mouse pajama pants and a loose t-shirt that I got for giving blood. It wasn't as if I was some bombshell in sexy lingerie. 

"Gee thanks, so what's up?" I asked, as I sat down. I was a little shocked when Ranger shoved a box of take-out in my hand. I opened it skeptically, expecting some health food crap, but I was shocked to find my favorite from Pino's, a meatball sub. I looked up at him, my skeptic look not falling from my face. "Why do I have the feeling you're buttering me up?" 

Ranger sat down across from me, leveling me with a gaze. "I'm not buttering you up." He promised. "But...I do have some news to tell you." He looked away from me and then back again. It almost seemed like he was nervous about whatever it was he was about to tell me, but that was crazy...right? This was Ranger we were talking about, he didn't get nervous. At least, that's what I always thought. 

"What is it?" I asked, distracting myself with my sub. I ate, since I was pretty hungry, but my stomach was a ball of nerves. 

"I'm leaving Trenton." Ranger said bluntly, causing my gaze to whip up toward him. I knew my jaw was open unattractively. But I couldn't help it, I was shocked. "Not...not too permanently. I'll still pop in every once in a while, probably. But for the foreseeable future, I'm going to go to Miami, work out of that office for a while." 

"Why?" I hated myself for how broken my voice sounded, like he was shattering my world with the news. But in a way, he was. I'd had Ranger pretty much at my disposal ever since I started bounty hunting, except for the times he was 'in the wind'. It would be pretty stunting to not have him so easily accessible. 

"Julie's starting high school." Ranger said honestly, talking about his daughter. I'd only met her once, but I automatically liked her. I could see how much of a great little girl she was. "She's also starting to date." I had to laugh a little at the look Ranger got when he said that. It was obvious he wasn't so happy about that fact. "So I want to be around for a while, to be accessible for her and all. Make sure any boy she dates is worthy of her." 

"No boy will be worthy of her in your opinion." I pointed out, slightly amused. 

"Probably not." He said, unrepentantly. "But I want to at least make sure they aren't hoodlums and potential criminals. I don't want to one day have to chase down her boyfriend because he skipped bail." 

"That would be awkward." I agreed. "But don't lie, you'd love every minute of it." 

"I probably would." He admitted, grinning a little. "But she'd never forgive me." 

"Probably not." I consented. If my father was a bounty hunter when I was that age and he went after my boyfriend, no matter how justified it was, I'd still be pissed. 

"But yeah, I want to go down and spend some time with her before she goes off to college." Ranger said quietly. 

"Of course, I understand." I really did, too. I could be selfish and want him around, even if I kept him at arms length, but that wouldn't be fair to him. How could I begrudge the man going to spend time with his daughter? That would make me selfish and he'd grow to resent me. "You should go, enjoy it while you can. You deserve that change." 

He nodded and stood up, coming over to me. I tensed a little, wondering if he was going to try and kiss me, but he only kissed my forehead. "If you need anything, you can contact Tank, and if you need to bide your time and earn some money between skips for Vinnie, your cubicle at Rangeman is always open." 

I smiled at that, looking up at his face. "Thank you, Ranger." I said softly. I hoped he understood that I wasn't just thanking him for telling me that, but for everything he'd ever done for me the last few years. 

A funny look came over his face as he stepped away from the couch I was sitting on, not turning away from me as he walked. I hated his ability to not trip over anything as he did that. I'd already be on the floor. "You're welcome, babe." He said and then he turned and disappeared. I was sad that, that was probably the last time I would be seeing him for however long it would be, but I was also fairly glad he didn't waste a lot on goodbyes. I was never good with them and I was sure by the end of it, I'd be a blubbering mess. As it was, I had to reach up and wipe a few stray tears that ran down my face, fighting not to go into a full on sobbing fit. 

Once I finished eating, not really savoring the food like I would normally, I threw the container away and tossed a grape and a few hamster pellets to Rex before making my way to my bedroom. Since I'd already showered and dressed for bed, I got under the covers and tried not to think about the fact that Ranger was formally out of my life. That meant I was currently persona non grata in the romance department. It was weird. I'd been going from being in our idea of a relationship with Joe, to whatever it was Ranger and I had. Now both of them were out of my life. What would I do now, and why did I suddenly think that I needed a man in my life? Ugh this was getting me nowhere and I was getting disgusted at myself that maybe my mom's lectures about how I need a husband (it just so happened that she thought Joe should be that husband, though) and a safer job (as if I would go work at the button factory or the tampon factory) were getting to me. I rolled over and buried my face under my pillow, closing my eyes. It was a testament to how exhausted I was that I fell asleep almost immediately...or maybe I just smothered myself.


	2. The No Good Very Bad Day

The next morning I was startled out of my dreams about chasing the Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters by the phone ringing. I threw the pillow off of my face and rolled over on my back, deciding to just let the answering machine get it. It took a few rings before it finally picked up and I heard my mom's voice, making me groan. "Stephanie, this is your mother." No kidding, mom. "You need to come by as soon as you get this. It's important." There was something strange to my mother's voice that got me curious. She sounded subdued for some reason and it sent a knot to the pit of my stomach. 

I decided I wouldn't get anywhere just laying there trying to analyze the message, so I pushed myself out of bed and went to the bathroom. I tamed my hair as best as I could and decided since I just took a shower the night before, I didn't need to do that and after I just threw my hair up in a ponytail, I brushed my teeth and changed into a pair of jeans and an old Metallica t-shirt, sliding my feet into my sneakers before grabbing my keys and heading out to my parents. 

It didn't take me long to get to the Burg and to my parents house and as I saw the house, I noticed my sister Valerie was there, probably with her husband and four kids. I bit back a groan, not sure if I wanted to deal with that craziness, as I pulled in, barely able to get my car into a space without it hanging out in the street. Once I grabbed my mascara out of my pocketbook and swiped on a few coats of mascara for courage, I got out and went to the door. I let myself in, thinking it was weird that my mom and Grandma Mazur didn't greet me as they usually did. I noticed the house was too quiet and I saw that my youngest nieces Lisa and Maggie were laying on a blanket in the living room. I went over and fussed over them for a few seconds before going to the kitchen. When I got there, I stopped in the doorway in shock and debated quietly backing out. My mom, sister Valerie, and her husband Albert Kloughn were sitting at the kitchen table and my sister had her face in her hands sobbing. Albert looked like he was trying to be strong for her, but I saw his lower lip wobbling and his face was red and blotchy like he'd already been crying. 

"What's going on?" I asked, once my mom looked up and pierced me with her gaze. Looks like I wasn't going anywhere. I sighed mentally and resigned myself to my fate as I sat down. 

"Stephanie, I know I hate your job, and I wish you would just get a normal job like Mau..." My mom cut herself off just as I was preparing to zone out while she got the rant out of her system about how I needed to be more like Maureen Dumbrowski's daughter (or insert the offspring of any number of her friends). "I need you to help us..." 

"Mary Alice and Angie were kidnapped." Valerie said suddenly, looking up at me. Her face was wet with tears and her mascara was streaked all over her blotchy face. She took a shuddering breath and leaned into Albert's side. "I took them to that new kid's center to play while I sat in the cafeteria and did some work." Valerie worked as Albert's receptionist but since Albert worked out of a spare room just off the laundromat and was what was called an 'ambulance chaser' in common jargon, he didn't get a lot of work as a lawyer, so she had a pretty lax schedule which helped since the girls weren't in school right now. "I noticed we'd been there a few hours so I stood to go and get them and bring them to get some food and I heard a scream." She bit back another crying jag and took a few moments to compose herself before speaking again. "I rushed out to see what was going on and I saw these men dragging them out of the fire escape door. The alarm sounded and I tried to run after them but everyone panicked because the sprinklers went off." 

I was stunned, and I couldn't say anything at first. I felt like I was going to throw up and hyperventilate all at the same time. My nieces had been kidnapped. You heard about cases like this all the time, especially in a place like Trenton, but never do you think it would happen to you, or someone close to you. I didn't know how to react. But then I snapped my emotions back into place like a rubber band and decided to get as much information as possible so I could get to work doing what I could. "Did you see the men who took them?" 

"No." Valerie admitted. "They had on bulky hoodies and masks over their faces." 

That complicated things. "Did you get a look at the vehicle they were in?" 

"No." Valerie said, wiping at her face. "I couldn't even get out of the building and by the time I did, they were already gone." 

I had to admit, I was at a loss. But the good thing was I had lots of things at my disposal so I kept my frustration off of my face as I got up and gave Valerie a big hug, letting her hold onto me for a few seconds before pulling back. "We're going to get them back." I promised. "They're going to be fine, just keep telling yourself that." I spent a few more minutes there before going out to my car. I managed to drive about five miles before I had to pull over, numb in shock. I knew I wouldn't be able to get anywhere, so I called Tank at Rangeman. 

"Yo." He answered on the first ring, standard Rangeman greeting. 

"Tank, I uh, do you think you could...one of the guys...come get me..." I was pretty sure I was only barely making sense. "I need to...come and uh, talk...for help." 

Tank was silent for a few seconds before speaking again. "Of course, Bomber. You stay where you are, I have some guys out near you, they'll be there in a second." He disconnected and I sat there, not knowing how long, my mind whirring with everything that had transpired. I was shocked out of my stupor by a knock on my window. I looked up and saw Lester standing there and looked behind me and saw a standard Rangeman SUV parked behind my car. I blinked and unlocked the door, moving over to the passenger side as he slid in. 

"What's up, Beautiful?" Lester asked me, watching me as he pushed the seat back to accomodate his height. "Tank said you sounded off on the phone. He thought maybe your car had blown up again, but your trackers didn't go offline." I knew he was trying to joke with me, but I wasn't in the mood. 

"My..." I took a deep, shaky breath and felt Lester's hand rest on my arm for silent support, and I noticed his expression went from playful to serious in a split second. "My nieces were kidnapped." I got out, before telling Lester everything that I'd been told by Valerie. He sat there listening patiently before he got out and went back to the SUV. He spoke briefly and then came back, sliding in. He pulled me over close to him as he started the car and wrapped an arm around me, angling away from the curb. 

"Don't worry, Beautiful." He said softly, pressing his face against my hair briefly. "We're going to find them, we'll get them back. We're not going to let anything happen to them." I was glad for his presence right then, because I needed it desperately. I zoned out for the rest of the drive back to Haywood and didn't come back out of my haze until Lester gently pulled me out of the car. I noticed the SUV Lester had been in pull in near us and Bobby, Woody, and Vince got out. I looked up at Lester curiously. "We went out to get some skips, infiltrated a drug ring. It was pretty intense so we went out together." He explained. I may not have the ESP I swear all employees had but Lester was for all intents and purposes my best friend and I swear we had it with each other at least. I nodded and let Lester lead me into the elevator with the other three guys. They didn't say anything to me, but I felt Bobby reach over and gently rest a hand on my back briefly, silently letting me know I had support. 

Once we got off the elevator, Lester led me, and the other three, to one of the conference rooms and I saw Tank was already there. Tank got up from the seat he'd been sitting in and walked over to me, wrapping me up in his arms. Tank was a man who could make even the biggest men feel dwarfed and I felt like a little girl in his arms. There was something about the comfort he gave me, and I broke down finally, getting out all the emotion that had been building up. To his credit, Tank was patient and just let me get it all out. It took a while, but finally I was all cried out and let him lead me over to sit at the table, pushing a box of tissues toward me. 

"I'm so sorry, Bomber." He rumbled quietly as the other guys sat around the table, Lester sitting at my side, putting his arm on the back of my chair. "We'll find them though, I swear to you we will. From this point on this is our priority case. We aren't going to stop until they're found." 

"Tank, I don't want you to..." I started, but he cut me off. 

"Stephanie, listen." He said. "I don't want to scare you too much but if both of them were taken, this doesn't seem like it's an isolated incident. I'm thinking it's probably either a cover for child prostitution, or some kind of slave thing." That put things into perspective, but it also brought my earlier nausea back to the forefront. Thankfully, Bobby, being a medic, recognized me going green and he grabbed a wastebasket and shoved it in Lester's hands and Lester gently pulled me over and held my hair back as I retched into the small garbage can. I didn't think I'd have anything in my stomach left, but I was proven wrong. I finally managed to get everything up and sat up as Lester let my hair go. 

"Sorry." I mumbled, wiping my mouth with another tissue, which Lester threw into the basket for me. 

"It's fine." Tank said gently. "I would've done the same thing probably. I just wanted to let you know this isn't a burden for us, it's not something we're doing just because it's you. We'd probably be wrapped up in it, even if your nieces weren't involved. There's no telling if there's any other kids that have been kidnapped. I'm waiting on some intel about that, to see if we have any leads." 

About that time a knock sounded on the door and Tank told whoever it was to come in. Hal came in with a folder in his hand and he put it in front of Tank. "Four others." He said, and I knew instinctively he meant four other kids that had been kidnapped. "All in the last month, and these guys, whoever they are, have balls. They've taken every kid in broad daylight and from fairly public places. One of the kids was taken from the park, two were taken within days of each other at the local Walmart, and the forth was snatched when she and her mom were just about to get into a cab. All female." That made my stomach roll again, I just had nothing else to throw up. I let Lester hug me to his side and closed my eyes, trying to center myself. It didn't work very well though. 

"I hate to say it." Bobby spoke up from where he was sitting. "But it definitely sounds like either kiddie prostitution, or some kind of slavery ring. If not that..." 

"Sweatshop." Vince piped up, and I glanced over and noticed he had his fist clenched on the table in front of him. Vince was one of the Merry Men I didn't know too well. I knew he was Italian (I could tell that much just by looking at him) and I'd heard once from someone that his family was from Trenton as well. But that was about it. He was a handsome man though and could put most men to shame. But that could be said for just about any of them. 

"Why the hell is shit like that going on in Trenton though?" Bobby asked, agitated. "That's disgusting." 

"That's what we have to figure out." Tank piped up, taking charge again, dismissing Hal. "I want you five to take lead on the case. Bomber, you up for that?" 

"Of course, I am." I said quietly, my voice raw. 

Tank reached over and patted my hand. "Good. We all know your instincts are second to none, so I know we'll have the lid blown off of this in no time. Now, I have nothing to add right now so you all are dismissed. If you figure out anything, keep me informed, and we'll figure out where to go from there." 

I sat there as Tank left the room, not really knowing what to do. I could've gone back to my apartment, but I didn't really want to be alone right then. I figured my thoughts would race out of control and I would've driven myself crazy.

Lester seemed to realize my conundrum and he leaned over and patted my shoulder, easing me toward him. "Come on up to four, stay there for a while. I could even get someone to go by and get Rex and grab some clothes for you. You could stay as long as you wanted. You don't have to go through this alone, Beautiful." 

I had to admit, it was nice having someone taking care of me like Lester was attempting to. When I was with Joe, the only taking care of me he ever did was trying to strong arm me into quitting bounty hunting for a 'nice, normal' job, which was something my mother also wanted, and making sure I also had an orgasm when we had sex. He was so giving really. It was no wonder why we lasted as long as we did. Hrmph. But here Lester wanted to be there with me, work with me, every step of the way, and to help me as much as he could. He wasn't trying to get me to back off in any way, probably realizing that I had a vested intertest in the case since my nieces were involved. I didn't know what to say at first, though. I had a ton of guilt in my family (mostly from my mom) so the first thing that went through my mind was that I'd be a burden. 

"Hey, woah." Lester turned me around, making me look at him. "Don't even think that, Beautiful. You would never be a burden of any kind for any of the guys here. We all love you so much, and we'd do anything for you, all you'd have to do would be to ask. We'd consider it our most important priority." 

Damn my internal filter. I hadn't meant to say that out loud. It happened all the time though. Especially if I was distracted, tired, hungry...

"Alright, well...that doesn't sound terrible. Are you sure you have the room?" I asked. 

Lester chuckled. "Beautiful, we'll make the room, don't you worry. Is that a yes, though?" 

I thought about it for all of five seconds before nodding. "Yes, as much as I might not want to admit it, I really don't want to be alone right now." 

Lester smiled and kissed my forehead, something that briefly sent a tingle through me. I stamped down on those feelings though. "Come on, Beautiful. Let me escort you up, someone will go by and get your things." 

"You mean someone gets to paw through my underwear drawer." I cracked as Lester helped me up out of my chair.

"Lucky bastard." He joked, causing me to slug his arm lightly. It did more damage to me than it probably did to him though. Lester took me over to the elevator, and Bobby followed us, Vince and Woody going off to my apartment to gather my things. At least I knew Woody would be respectful of my things. He was a southern gentleman...as far as I knew anyway, he could have a hidden perv side to him I didn't know about.


	3. Getting Refuge

Lester and Bobby took me up to the apartment level of the building and I was briefly taken off guard when I noticed on one side of the hallway there was a long space of just wall, with a door in the middle of the space. It didn't seem like a lot of space for everyone, but maybe it was easier for them to enter one door and have their separate space. Lester took out a key and unlocked the door and we walked inside and I stopped in shock, causing Bobby to almost careen into me. He instinctively put an arm around me to keep me from flying when he lightly bumped into me and I managed to catch myself. "What is it, Bomber?" Bobby asked worriedly. 

"What? Do you guys just share one huge frat house space?" I blurted out. 

Lester and Bobby both laughed. "No, Beautiful." Lester told me. "Me, Bobby, Vince and Woody share this space together, well and you'll be here. I hope that's ok. There's more than enough space, we won't be too up on each other." 

"Oh." I said, letting that process. Be around four hot guys? I'm ok with that. I closed my eyes and held in a groan when both Bobby and Lester smiled at me. "I said that out loud, didn't I?" 

"No, but it was written all over your face." Bobby admitted, chuckling. 

I sighed and waved it off. "Well I'm ok with being here, I'm not going to like...put anyone out." 

"Good." Lester said, squeezing my shoulder. "In the mean time, are you hungry? Have you eaten?" 

"No." I muttered, running my fingers through my hair. "I woke up to my mom calling me. I woke up hungry, though, because I was having dreams about the Marshmallow Man. I only ever dream about food when I'm hungry." 

"Did you eat dinner?" Bobby asked, studying me. 

"Yes." I said a little defensively. "Ranger brought me Chinese before he left." 

"Good." Lester said. "So let Bobby do his thing and make you some brunch. You come here and snuggle with me on the couch while he does that." 

"You don't seem like the type to snuggle." I pointed out, letting Lester steer me over to the large couch they had that formed an L. 

"Only with you." Lester said as he flopped down in the corner and pulled me to rest on his lap. I let myself sink in against him and I had to admit, as his arms came around me, it felt good. I hated to think that, but it was true and right then I was feeling vulnerable enough to take the comfort without making too much a fuss about it. My family wasn't the touchy feely type, we showed our love by nagging and cooking so this was new to me but I could easily get used to it. Of course I couldn't. That would be foolish. None of these guys here would want me, and I couldn't put my heart out there like that. 

I must've fallen asleep, because I was suddenly aware of other voices in the room. I laid there quietly and recognized it was Woody and Vince. It wasn't that hard since Woody had a southern accent and Vince was Italian through and through. He would've been the perfect guy to take home to my parents, that is if my mom wasn't so set on Joe and I getting married. Not that, that would happen. Ever. 

"So do you think it's tied to the same case?" I heard, but more felt the rumble under me from the voice. Then I remembered that I was on Lester's lap and must've fallen asleep against him. That was slightly mortifying. But I guess if he was uncomfortable, he could've easily moved me. 

"It could be." Woody piped up. "We don't have enough intel to figure it out yet, though." 

"What's tied to the same case?" I asked, stretching a little as I moved to slide down next to Lester. He held me on his lap though, not letting me move, so I just looked up at Woody and Vince. 

"Someone just reported another kid missing." Vince admitted. "I only just found out about it because it happened in Wilbur and my mom called me to ask if I knew anything about it. Apparently it just happened, I guess gossip travels fast." If Wilbur, another borough of Trenton, was anything like the Burg? It wouldn't shock me. 

"But that's not all." Woody piped up, catching my attention. "There was footage from the security camera of the kid's center. It's...not the best, but it's something at least." 

I sat up quickly and looked at him intently. "Can I see it?" 

"We thought you'd ask." Woody set a laptop down in front of me on the coffee table and I leaned close so I could see the picture clearly. I didn't pay much attention to Lester's arms still wrapped around me as I watched the slightly grainy picture come up. Nothing happened for a while until the door suddenly slammed open and my heart clenched as I saw two guys come out dragging my nieces. Angie was obviously distraught and crying heavily, but Mary Alice was fighting for all she was worth, and at one point she managed to get a good kick in on the guy dragging her. I couldn't help but feel a spark of pride go through me when I saw it. 

I felt Lester chuckle behind me. "Kid's got spunk just like her aunt Stephanie." 

"Sure does, drives her mom and grandma crazy." I said, grinning briefly. I rewound the video and watched it over again, trying to pick out anything I could, even trying to get a peek at the guys. But sadly, just like Valerie said, they were in masks. "Wait..." I rewound the video yet again and watched through. I noticed a few seconds after Mary Alice and Angie were dragged off an SUV sped by the camera and I had a sneaking suspicion this was the vehicle they were using. My spidey sense was going off when I saw it. I rewound it yet again and tried to get a peek at the license plate. Unfortunately, all I could get was J75 and that was in the middle of the other numbers. So I still had a few more to figure out. "Is there a way to pause?" I asked, and Lester leaned forward to show me how to do it. Unfortunately I couldn't pause the video in a good enough spot to see the rest of the numbers on the plate. I huffed in frustration and flopped back, forgetting I was still sitting on Lester until he wrapped his arms around me. 

"Don't worry, this is a start." Lester promised. "We can run what we know of the plate and see if there's any match and then cross reference to see what kind of vehicle they're on." 

"Unfortunately, it could be temporary plates." Vince pointed out. Lester must've shot him a look because he went on. "She deserves to know the truth, If these guys are professionals, and they damn sure don't seem like amateurs, they'll know they need to either ditch the vehicle, or ditch the plates and get new ones, it's something any dumbass criminal can manage to do if they have the right equipment and with all the shit they sell on Stark Street, it wouldn't be hard to get their hands on exactly what they need." 

I heard Lester grumble behind me and I put a hand on his arm. "I appreciate the truth, I know you're right." I said to Vince. "It's frustrating, and I'm feeling at a loss...but I can't give up, I'm not going to give up. I owe it to my nieces to do everything I can." 

"Well, in the meantime," Bobby spoke up, making me remember he was there as well. He walked over and handed me a plate and set a glass down on the coffee table in front of me. "You need to eat something. I know you may not be too hungry, but you need to eat, especially since you haven't eaten since last night." I glanced around and caught sight of the time flashing on the DVD player nearby and was shocked to see it was just after four in the afternoon. I'd gotten up at around 10:15 and stayed at my parents house until at least noon and then I was in the conference room from around 12:30 until 2:00 probably. Which meant I'd taken a two hour nap. I pulled the plate onto my lap and started eating while the guys discussed things around me. I was tapped out for the day and couldn't focus on anymore information. As it was, I was going into system overload and felt like my brain was about to crash. 

I must've zoned out a little too much because the next thing I was aware of was Bobby asking me if I wanted more to eat. I looked up at him confused. "Uh, no. I'm...I'm good." 

Bobby eyed me. "Alright...you were just scraping your fork around on the plate, I wasn't sure if you were trying to tell me something." 

I knew my cheeks pinkened at his words and I shook my head. "No, I'm good. Sorry." To remove the temptation I put the plate down and took my drink, taking a few generous gulps. I realized it was some kind of tea that had a peach or mango taste to it. It was nice and refreshing and I liked it. 

Bobby chuckled. "Alright." He said simply, and went back to the conversation they were having while I zoned out again, drinking the rest of the tea I had.

Sometime later I was aware of Lester placing a hand on my arm. "Ok, enough about that for now. We can only go in circles so many times." He told me. "Right now, why don't you go and take a shower, and relax? Once you're out, we'll have some dinner and watch movies and then it'll be time for bed. Sound good?" 

I knew he was trying to be nice and take my mind off of everything, but the problem was I wasn't sure if my mind could be taken off of what was going on. Ever since I'd been told about the kidnapping, it was always at the forefront of my mind, it was what I had been obsessing about. I appreciated the sentiment though. I nodded at him and leaned over to peck his cheek before going over to the bags that Vince and Woody had packed for me. I looked in and couldn't help but grin when I saw that my panties and bras had been stuffed down in the bottom, almost as if they'd tried to touch them as little as possible, while everything else had been more cared for in the packing process. 

I took out a pair of shorts that reached about mid-thigh on me and a shirt that I'd gotten once at the mall when I went with Lula and we ducked into Hot Topic so she could find a corset to wear. It was basic black and had The Beatles on the front in an artfully faded sort of way. I noticed they'd even packed my body wash and razor so I grabbed them as well, figuring it wouldn't be so bad to pamper myself a bit. Once Lester pointed me toward the bathroom, I went in and locked the door---like that would keep any of them out if they wanted to get in. But at least it was one barrier between us. 

I almost never had time for a bath, but when I did, I enjoyed them. It reminded me that sometimes it was a good idea to just take a little while for yourself. I knew I had to get somewhere with this case, but I also knew I had to be firing on all cylinders so it wouldn't be a good idea to become a zombie in the process. 

I ran the bath, getting it the right temperature for me. It was hot as hell outside, but I was the type of person that I needed to shower and bathe in water that was at least warm, otherwise I didn't feel like I got particularly clean, so once I had it at a temperature I felt was warm but wouldn't be too much to make me sweat, I stripped down and sank into the tub. I laid my head back against the wall and closed my eyes, just trying to relax and not let my mind wander too much. It was nice and I was able to do it for a while before I figured I needed to wash and at least shave my legs and under my arms before the water got cold. I did take my time doing that, feeling like there was no rush. If they were making dinner, then it would probably take a while and I wasn't the best cook so as long as I was in here, I wouldn't feel obligated to offer to help instead of just sitting around while they did all the work. 

Finally, I was almost pruney and I figured I'd stalled long enough so I made quick work of washing my hair since it had been almost a full day and I got out and haphazardly dried off. I noticed a hair dryer on the counter, probably for Bobby since his hair was the only one that was long since he kept it in cornrows and I used it to dry my hair and I pulled it up in a bun with a band I had around my wrist before I pulled on the clothes I'd brought with me. The shirt hung a little long on me and it made it look like it was all I was wearing, but I was comfortable around the guys and didn't feel like I needed to second guess what I was wearing. 

I walked out of the bathroom just in time to hear Lester call out to me. "Beautiful, if you want to stash your clothes you just took off and the towel you used in the hamper in my room we'll pop it all in the wash when we do the next load." 

"Where's your room?" I called back, figuring that sounded like a good idea on account of I didn't know how long I'd be staying here and it was always a good idea to have clean clothes. 

"Turn right, two doors on the left." Lester called again. I followed his directions and opened the door, feeling like I was intruding in some way. But if he was ok with me being in his room, I wasn't going to look an opportunity to snoop a little in the mouth...well, it was close enough to the expression anyway. Once I walked in, I had to admit, it wasn't at all what I expected. There was a distinct lack of pictures of bikini clad women bent over muscle cars for one thing. For another, it was very homey. I guess I expected their private spaces to be kind of bare bones and almost sterile. But looking at it, that wasn't the case at all. His bed was large (as he was a large guy) and had a bedspread on it that was mostly black with dragons that were white outlined with grey and red accents and he had pillow cases in a deep maroon. I saw the hamper and went and put my clothes in it before his DVD shelf caught my eye and I walked over and glanced at it. The first thing I noticed was that he had four seasons of the Sons of Anarchy show, which was something I would expect him to have, it seemed right up his alley. I knew they'd just finished a fifth season a few months before but I figured the DVDs weren't out yet, otherwise he'd probably have them. He also seemed to have a thing for series as he had all the seasons of a show called Paranormal State, and Supernatural. I wouldn't have pegged Lester as a fan of ghosts but apparently he was. It was confirmed when I saw seasons of True Blood as well. But that wasn't all he had, he had all the original Superman movies (the Christopher Reeves ones), the original Spiderman series (with Tobey Maguire), and two of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies. I smiled at those last two finds, as Batman was always my nickname for Ranger. 

I realized that I was probably being a little too nosey and I beat a hasty retreat out of the room. I didn't notice anyone in the living room and just as I was about to call out, I heard Bobby's voice. "In the kitchen, Bomber. Just keep going through, you'll run right into it." I shrugged and followed his directions and when I stepped into the kitchen, I stopped in the doorway for several reasons. First of all, the kitchen was gorgeous, and probably a tv chef's dream. I could easily see someone like Ina Garten shooting her show from it. It was bright and open, with most of the cabinets and drawers in an off white color, while the granite was more an egg shell color. The floor was a honey colored wood that glistened. I felt like I was walking into a soundstage for a movie or something and didn't quite know what to do with myself. 

The second thing I noticed was all the guys were in there and weren't in their normal Rangeman black that I was accustomed to seeing them in. I was tempted to reach up and check my mouth for drool but I didn't want to call attention to the ogling I was doing. Lester was parading around---ok probably not parading around, but it was easy to call it that since God knows the man preened like a peacock sometimes---in just a pair of lounge pants, his upper body on full display. I'd never seen him shirtless before, but the man had a body that put at least Joe to shame, and probably on the same level as Ranger. I noticed he had a couple tattoos and I wanted to get a closer look but I stopped myself. I definitely didn't want to get caught ogling him since he'd probably never let me live it down. Bobby was in shorts that were cotton and had a drawstring, not particularly overly sexy, but showed off more skin than I was used to, and a shirt that was basically open at the sides, showing off a good portion of his chest. Woody was in a regular faded t-shirt and lounge pants while Vince was in what looked to be athletic shorts and a basketball jersey for a team I didn't recognize (I was more a football and hockey kinda girl). 

I got my barings before any of them noticed anything wrong with me and strode into the room. "What is that? It smells really good." 

"That is my ma's famous lasanga." Lester said, looking over at me with a bright grin. 

"Aren't you Cuban?" I asked, studying him skeptically. 

"It's a little Cubanized." Lester admitted. "But I think you'll still like it." I shrugged and went over to sit at a small breakfast nook in the room. 

"I trust your judgment." I said honestly. 

"It's almost ready, why don't you, Woody, and Vince go get the table ready and the drinks. Bobby and I will bring the lasagna and a salad." Lester looked over at me and I nodded, going to help Vince and Woody set the table. It wasn't long before we sat down and started eating. I know the guys were watching me as I ate, but I couldn't help it. It was a very good meal (even the salad, I was impressed) and I had always been vocal about my appreciation of food. It wasn't a meal I expected any of the guys here to eat, so I took advantage of every bite I took. 

After dinner, we sat down, me curled up between Bobby and Vince, with Lester sitting on the floor in front of me, with Woody in an overstuffed chair nearby, and watched The Woman In Black. I was a secret fan of Harry Potter (Lula had actually gotten me into it after she'd gone around acting like a wizard after reading the series and I had a bit of an inappropriate crush on Daniel Radcliffe) and I enjoyed it, even if it scared the pants off of me a few times. I was a wimp when scary movies were concerned and while this wasn't the scariest movie I've ever seen (that distinction went to The Strangers---a movie Connie and Lula had dragged me to that made me almost leave the theatre it freaked me out so bad---and had made me have the most embarrassing moment of my life later that night when Ranger snuck into my apartment to talk to me and I had actually tucked my loaded gun under my pillow. Let's just say it was a good thing he had such good reflexes otherwise he would've been dead) it did scare me pretty badly. I enjoyed it though and the ending was sort of like Sixth Sense in a way, which I could appreciate. It was like an M. Night Shyamalan movie done right. 

I yawned and looked at the time on the DVD player, seeing that it was about 10:30 PM. It wasn't the latest I'd ever been in bed, but I didn't think I could stay up any longer. 

"Sounds like you need some sleep, come on." Lester got up and held his hands out to me. I grabbed them and let him pull me to his bedroom. I didn't think about it as he laid me down in his bed and got in next to me. I'd fallen asleep on him a couple of times before, and had always woken up alone in bed. I was too tired to really think it over so I just fell asleep as I felt his arm wrap around my waist.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning I woke up alone and groaned when I saw 9:30 flashing on the alarm clock next to the bed. I'd gotten 11 hours of sleep but I felt like I could get a few more hours. I rolled over in bed and grunted when my face landed on a piece of paper. I picked it up and saw that Lester left me a note saying they were going off to work and that I was welcome to the cereal, or eggs in the kitchen if I wanted breakfast. That seemed like a lot of work though so I just got up and went to take a shower. Once I'd dressed in my Rangeman uniform (black shirt with the Rangeman insignia on the breast and some black jeans), I did my makeup and hair before sliding my feet into some shoes and heading out. I knew I needed to touch base with my family today, but I wasn't looking forward to it. 

On the way, I grabbed half a dozen donuts from the Tasty Pastry, figuring the sugar rush would help me get through the long day ahead. I got down four of them before I made it to my parents house, and I choked down the last two sitting in the driveway. I wish I'd gotten something to drink, but beggars can't be choosers and I was hoping since it was only 10:22 I could mooch some coffee. 

When I got up to the door, my Grandma Mazur was waiting on me and opened the door for me. "Boy, I sure was hoping you'd bring one of those hotties you work with." She quipped as I walked in. "It'd be nice to get a little eyecandy around here right now." I knew she was trying to keep her mind off of everything going on so I just hugged her hello before going to the kitchen. I saw my mom ironing and I wondered how long she'd been at it, but I was sidetracked by the coffee pot before I could ask. 

After I'd sat down, my mom turned her gaze on me, and I took that as my cue to start talking. "We managed to get the security footage from the place and I saw Mary Alice and Angie being pulled out by two men, but they were too covered to have any ID for them. We suspect that an SUV that rolls by a few seconds later is the getaway vehicle, but we can't make out the full tag number, nor do we know if it's temporary ones." When my mom looked down and started ironing harder, I knew she'd heard me and wasn't happy with the news. I wished I had something better to tell her, but the truth was, I didn't. I finished my coffee in silence and when my mom didn't say anything else I stood and went over to hug her. "I'll find them, I'll figure it out. I have a 100% success rate, not to brag or anything, and I'm not going to stop until we get them back." I was careful not to make too many promises, but this I could promise and make good on it. I wouldn't rest until I did. My mom didn't say anything, just nodded, so I gave her one last hug and went to hug my grandma before leaving.

I didn't have anywhere else I needed to go, since I wasn't in the mood to go after skips for Vinnie, so I went back to Haywood. Once I got up to five (where the main offices were), I walked to my cubicle and sat down, wondering where I needed to go next. I decided to see if I could narrow down the license plate, even though I only had three numbers out of the seven usually on plates. I pulled up the right program and entered the number. Once the search stopped, I groaned when I saw that there was about twenty to thirty possible matches. I didn't let myself get frustrated though and narrowed down to SUV's. When the number dropped to three, I thought that was manageable. 

The first was registered to a Maureen McGraw, a woman who was a single, recently divorced, mother of four who was working two jobs just to make ends meet. I immediately crossed her off the list. Something just didn't hit me as suspicious about her. 

The second was registered to a Clark Monahan and I ruled him out as well. He worked at an animal shelter and the picture attached to his file made him seem more prone to Dungeons & Dragons tournaments than stealing children. 

When I pulled up the third, my spidey sense practically screamed at me, but I wasn't sure why at first. The vehicle was registered to a Michael Soloman and he didn't seem too imposing, but something was telling me to keep fishing so I looked up everything I could about him using the various search programs that I had at my disposal. When I was done, I looked through everything and not much stuck out to me. MIchael was a business man who spent a lot of time going overseas for deals, and visited places like Rome, France, and Spain. Sounded like a good deal to me. I saw that he had a brother, Phil, and looked him up on a whim. When I did, and I looked through what I found, I gasped and stood up abruptly, before realizing I needed to print everything off. While it was printing, I sent an e-mail to Lester, telling him to get together Woody, Vince, Bobby and Tank and meet me in one of the conference rooms. 

As soon as the papers finished spitting out of the printer, I belatedly wished I'd made more copies but I didn't have time, so I just stacked them together and rushed off to the conference rooms. If they weren't in use, the doors always stayed open so I went to the first one where the door was almost all the way closed and went inside, closing it behind me. I saw the guys already assembled there. 

"What is it, Beautiful?" Lester asked me, as soon as I looked up from the papers in my hand. I went over and pushed him back in his seat and perched on his thigh just so I could be as close as possible to the others. 

"I looked up what I could on the license plate of the vehicle." I explained first. "Then I looked at the people registered with a license plate similar who owned an SUV. Two were duds immediately, I didn't feel my spidey sense tingling, you know?" I saw a few of them share a small grin but I plugged on, on a roll. "The third was registered to a Michael Soloman and I didn't see anything too interesting in his file except that he has a job that takes him all over the world to deal with 'clients' even though his business is just 'owns his own business'. There was no specifics. He has a brother, Phil, though and Phil has been brought in by Rangeman a few times..." 

"Phil Soloman..." Tank repeated and then swore violently. 

"Who's that? The name doesn't ring any bells." Vince said, frowning. 

"Phil Soloman has always been brought in for the same thing, parole violation." Tank explained. "A few years ago he was arrested on child molestation charges, even though they had no physical evidence to back it up, and he was ultimately released. They got a tip from a neighbor and raided his home and he had some kids stashed in his basement. They hadn't been touched, but a few of them said he'd talked about it, most likely as a scare tactic. But since he hadn't actually done anything, and said the fact that he had the kids was for a joint Boyscout/Girlscout meeting meant they couldn't make anything stick."

The thought made my stomach drop but I shook the feeling off. "I think these two have something to do with it. Phil is the obvious one, but I think Michael has something to do with it. There's something about his vague job description that makes me curious."

"That definitely sounds suspicious." Lester rumbled, the vibrations of his body going right through me in ways that were pleasant but unneeded. At least, I was 90% sure they were unneeded, there was a little devil on my shoulder, though, wanting me to take advantage of it. It was that same devil that caused me to jump off the roof when I was a little girl with a towel tied around my neck to see if I could fly like Superman.

"Well you're on the right track, Bomber." Tank told me, distracting me away from my feelings. "I think you should try and dig a little more on Michael and Phil Solomon. See if they have any properties, see who they deal with. Anything that you think you should persue. Anything your Spidey sense gets triggered by, be sure and let us know. Even if it's inconsequential in the end, we need to know it. We could use just about anything in the case against them. I want both of them in jail for a long, long time." 

I understood. It made me wonder what vested interest Tank had in the case, though. It seemed like he had more of an interest in it than just wanting to find the children or help me find my nieces. I tried to will him into talking, but that was pretty much a no go. 

"In the meantime, good job on what you found so far. Why don't you five go for lunch?" Tank suggested. 

As soon as he mentioned lunch, I could feel my stomach rumble, but thankfully it was silent enough I don't think anyone heard it. I climbed off of Lester's lap, and belatedly realized I had been on his lap, which made me try and hold back the blush that wanted to come out, and waited for the other guys to get up and join me. We walked out of the conference rooms and they indulged me by crowding into an elevator. I know they'd usually take the stairs down but there was no way I was going down five flights of stairs. I'd be ready to keel over as soon as I reached the last flight...oh who was kidding, I'd be ready to keel over one flight down probably. I was hilariously out of shape. Except a lot of the time it wasn't too hilarious. 

We wound up going to Blue Danube. It wasn't a restaurant I went to often, in fact the last time I'd been was when Lula, Connie and I were celebrating Connie's birthday a few years prior, but it had good food. We wound up at a table near the back and I felt a little strange since I was on one side of the table with Lester and Bobby on the other side, Woody on one end and Vince on the other end. They all had a thing about facing the doors and windows and I figured I was as safe as I was going to get if something happened. They ordered water and I had a Coke. Crazy, health obsessed men. Our waitress seemed to be falling all over herself to help them and I was the afterthought. I fought down my urge to smack her, though. One, it was unbecoming of a lady (even one from Jersey); and two, it would've been all over the front page of the paper. I was sadly the source of entertainment around Trenton and I sometimes had to watch what I did or said in public. If it got back to my mother, I'd be in or a long lecture. When the waitress finally came back to get our order, I felt a little nice when Vince insisted I ordered first and I couldn't help but shoot the chick a smug look as I ordered the suffed flounder. Vince, Woody and Bobby all ordered steak of some kind and Lester ordered paella. It had lobster tail, scallops, chicken, porsciutto, and shallots with spices mixed with rice. It sounded delicious. I had to wonder if Lester could make it and would make it for me one day. 

After our lunch, which I had gorged myself on, I wanted dessert, but I had already eaten so much and I had the half a dozen donuts for 'breakfast', so it probably wasn't a good idea. So I just excused myself to go to the bathroom before we left and the guys made playful comments about swinging back by in an hour to get me. I flipped them off as I stood up and went to the bathroom to do my business. Thankfully Blue Danube wasn't the hot spot a place like Pino's was, so the line wasn't too bad in the bathroom. I was glad for that since I really had to go. I did what I needed to do, and washed my hands, drying them with a few of those crappy recycled paper paper towels before exiting and almost running right into Joe Morelli. 

Even though Joe and I had been cordial the few times I'd run into him since we broke up, it still wasn't what I would call a welcome surprise. Not at all actually. But I pasted on my best friendly smile. "Hey, Joe." 

"Cupcake." Joe said, using that charming smile he always used when trying to charm the pants off of someone...most of the time literally. "I heard about your nieces, I'm so sorry." He leaned in and hugged me and I accepted. It was nice to get a comforting hug since the feelings were still pretty raw. At least, it was nice at first. "You know, I could be alone tonight if you wanted to swing by. Bob misses you, the boys miss you." How dare he! He was using the same old tired ways to get me into bed. I knew by 'the boys' he meant his shriveled, withered testicles and he was lucky I wasn't going to shove 'the boys' up into his esophagus. 

I shoved back away from him, causing him to stumble back a couple of steps before he caught himself because he wasn't expecting the reaction, and shot him my best bitchy 'Burg glare. I may have rebelled against everything that had to do with 'Burg standards but I was still from Trenton and that meant I was tough as nails. "How. Dare. You." I grit out, as his eyes widened. "How dare you, Joseph Morelli, try and take advantage of my situation to try and get me in bed! I cannot BELIEVE the gall you have right now to pull this. What about your girlfriend? I thought you were happy with her." 

"Well now, she doesn't have to know. Just let me take her home..." Joe started. 

"You're here on a date with her right now?!" I screeched, not caring about anyone who would overhear and spread the gossip around. "Oh, Joseph Morelli you..." I turned and stalked away, feeling him dart after me as I looked around the restaurant. I finally spotted the bottle blonde Joan Lunden look-alike in the off the shoulder leopard print top, and a black split skirt held up with a gold leather belt. Geesh, someone needed to tell this chick the 80's were over! But I wasn't about to be distracted by her abysmal fashion sense. "Honey, you should know something." I said, as soon as she looked up at me, looking a little like a deer in headlights. "That man," I pointed back at Joe, almost poking him right in the chest. "Just hit on me very aggressively as I was coming out of the bathroom. He told me he would 'take you home' and then invited me over to his place. You should know what kind of scumbag you're dating." With that, I turned and stormed out of the restaurant, internally smirking when I heard who was soon to be Joe's ex-girlfriend giving him what for in my wake. I made it almost to the SUV we came in when someone grabbed my arm to stop me in my tracks. My first instinct was to turn and throw a punch, thinking it was Joe to start something with me, but as soon as I turned with my fist up, I saw Vince, who instinctively held an arm up to block the blow. I put my fist down at my side and he lowered his arm. 

"I'm sorry." Vince said immediately, pulling me to him. I had to admit, as I sank into his body, that it felt pretty nice. Oh God, I really should've gotten dessert. "But if it makes you feel better, the girl he was with threw her drink on him and pushed him into a waiter who had a big platter of food. He was covered and I'm pretty sure by the way he was holding his arm, his wrist is fucked now." 

I had to smile at that. It did make me feel a little bit better. But I was still feeling pretty bummed. "I just want to go back to Haywood." I mumbled. 

Vince maneuvered me into the SUV and I was only vaguely aware of the drive before we went up to the apartment. I knew it was only probably mid-afternoon, but I thought a nap was in order. I must've said that out loud because I was tugged to a bedroom and laid down in bed. I felt someone stroke my hair out of my face as I fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a few days to get out. I was at a loss how to finish it up. But here it is. Cupcake fans might not like me too much. But I think I did warn for that.


	5. Chapter 5

When I woke sometime later, I stretched and groaned, hearing a few bones pop in my back and arms. I winced just from the sound alone and ran a hand through my hair. Thankfully my usually unruly curls weren't too bad so I didn't feel a panic to get to a brush. I looked around and realized I wasn't in Lester's room again. I didn't immediately realize which room I could've been in though. I got up and looked around, feeling my inner nosy Nancy come out. I saw a few DVD's up on the TV cabinet and scanned the titles. The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Beowulf (The Director's Cut), Slumdog Millionaire, and a few of the Harry Potter movies. I had to smirk when I saw those. You wouldn't expect a big, bad, ex-soldier Merry Man to be a fan of Harry Potter. Glancing around more I saw some CD's and I scanned those as well. Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Bon Jovi. I liked them, whichever one they were. Then they had CD's like Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Wynonna Judd, and Kenny Chesney. So not my type and I couldn't see a self-respecting Jersey boy listening to country music. I caught sight of a few pictures on a mantle and my eyes lit up. Bingo! I went over and scanned them, smiling when I saw the first one. 

Woody. That's who's bedroom I was in. The first picture was of Woody and two women. One was older and had to be his mother, and one was probably around his age. A sister? That's what I was going to guess until I was told otherwise. The picture beside it was of Woody and a horse. An actual, living, breathing, four legged horse and not just a woman with a horse-face. I couldn't help but scrunch my nose up a little. 

...What? I was from Jersey, the only horse I'd ever been around was the ride that used to be in front of the post office that you had to insert a quarter into, to 'ride' for about thirty seconds. 

But I had to admit, Woody looked damn good in the photo in a t-shirt that had the sleeves cut off, showing off his delicious muscular arms, and a white stetson perched on his head at just the right angle.

The last picture, though, made me have to check myself for drool. It was Woody, Vince, Lester, Bobby, Tank, Ranger, and a few other guys all out in some unidentified location that looked suspiciously like a jungle. Woody, Lester and Ranger all had their shirts off and Tank was in the process of taking his own off while Bobby was in a tank top that was barely able to be called a shirt and Vince was in a vest of some sort that had a few weapons attached to it, his arms on full display. I was pretty sure my panties were soaked at the image and I knew it would probably fuel a few good, naughty dreams for a while. 

I had to get out of there before I embarrassed myself and I turned and walked out of the room. I looked around to see if anyone was there, and I didn't immediately see anyone so I went to Lester's room where my bags were and dug out my laptop and went to go sit at the island. I wanted to use the internet to look up Michael and Phil Soloman and see if I could come up with something. I felt a little obsessive about this case, but the longer my nieces were with them, the more chances there were that they could be having unspeakable things done to them. Things that made my stomach roll just to think about. I didn't want that to happen so I knew I had to bust my ass to get them back. 

I started out by doing the obvious and looking up Michael Soloman's name. I got a few hits, but nothing that I thought was very special at first. I did make a note on a notepad document about a few companies he had, though. One was Soloman Textiles, which operated out of Brunswick, New York. The second was a shop that dealt with vintage cars that operated out of East Orange, New Jersey. A third was an insurance company in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. A forth was a television repair company in West Newbury, Massachusetts. My Spidey sense was suddenly going haywire. 

I was startled out of my inner thoughts by a voice. "Hey, Steph, you're finally up." I literally startled and looked over and saw Vince standing there. He'd changed out of his Rangeman uniform into a pair of blue gym shorts and a bright yellow tank top that was far too baggy. Geesh! Bright much? Also he'd scared the pants off me. 

"Finally, yeah. How long was I out?" I asked, making my eyes go up to his face.

"Not too long, about two hours or so. It's almost 4:30." Vince said, and I looked at the clock on my computer and saw that it was in fact 4:22. Ugh. My sleep schedule was so messed up lately. "Did you decide to get back at it?" He sat down next to me and I had to suddenly calm my raging Hungarian hormones. He smelled so good! 

"Ye---yeah actually." I said, clearing my throat. "I was just about to start looking up more. But I found that Michael Soloman owns some businesses." I looked over and saw Vince's steel blue eyes locked on me, listening to every word I said. I wasn't used to such attention. Back when Joe and I dated he'd usually just grunt at appropriate times while I was talking and Ranger was always focused on something else. I turned my computer and showed him the list I'd made. 

"Hey, my aunt Kathy lives in Beaver Falls." Vince said, gesturing to the computer. "But...that company don't sound too familiar to me, and I've been there quite a few times." He pursed his lips. "Just a second..." He got up and my hormones made a whimpering noise as he walked off. But then he came back with a cellphone up to his ear. "Hey, aunt Kathy? It's Vince...ah, I'm doing great, how about yourself? That's good...yeah, I miss you, too. I'll get down there sometime soon. Hey, aunt Kath...I have a question for you. Have you ever heard of..." He sat beside me again and glanced at my computer. "Soloman & Family Insurance Company?" There was a pause as he waited on an answer. "Only Bell, State Farm, and Tabernathy, huh? Well...thanks. I appreciate it...love you, too, I gotta go. Bye." He flipped the phone shut and looked at me again. "Not a real company, Steph. I hate to tell ya." 

"That's what I was thinking." I said, chewing on my lip as I thought it over. "I've been to West Newbury...well, through it and there's no Soloman's tv repair either. Plus these places..." I looked up the Wikipedia article on Brunswick, New York and showed it to him. "Does that look like a place that would have a textile company to you?" 

Vince's eyebrows furrowed as he scrolled down the page and looked at the few pictures on it. "No, it sure don't." He said, honestly. "Seems like a pretty small town, I don't see how a small town like that would have need for a textile company in it. Plus the ones who are probably trained to work in a place like that would live near the big city to get better work. That'd probably be one hell of a commute." 

"Exactly." I said, proud that my instincts about it seemed right and that I had to be onto something if Vince agreed with me. "As far as I can figure out, The Soloman's probably chose those places to set up fake businesses and no one's checked closely enough to realize they're fake. But..." 

Vince waited a few seconds to see if I was just gathering my thoughts before prompting me. "But, what? Trust your instincts, sweetheart. What are they telling you?" 

"That they probably do have something going on in these cities." I blurted out, that small bit of faith spurning me on. "I don't know whether they're holding kids in one, or more, of these places. But, each of them isn't a really long drive from Trenton. Really the longest ones are around six hours. But I think if they're hauling kids, then..." 

"They're taking them to East Orange." Vince finished my thought, picking up on my thought process. 

"It would make sense. Even Brunswick New York is about four hours away." I pointed out. "East Orange is only a little over an hour. If they're traveling with kids, unless they knocked them out, they're not going to want to go all the way to Pennsylvania. That's almost seven hours away. Even if they had them tied up and gagged, that's a long way." 

"I definitely think you're onto something." He said, making me feel a little proud of myself for everything I'd thought about and figured out. "We need to..." He was cut off as Bobby, Lester, Woody and Tank let themselves in. I was curious as to what Tank was doing there but I didn't question it. 

"Hey, Beautiful, you're up!" Lester exclaimed when he saw me awake, a big smile on his face. "Good, we came to see if you'd figured anything out." 

"I just have, I think." I said, smiling widely. I took a few minutes to fill them in on what I'd been doing and what Vince and I had figured out, making a note that he'd called his aunt who lived in Beaver Falls to confirm that there was no Soloman & Family Insurance Company. Then I filled them in on the fact that I thought if they had kids they were being held in East Orange somewhere. 

"Good job, Steph." Tank said, causing me to smile again. "I have a sneaking suspicion you're right. Now your next step is to go online and look up the car shop that's supposedly in East Orange and see if you can find an address and a number. If you get a number, call it and see if you can talk to someone and make up a story that you have a vintage car you want to have appraised and looked at." 

"I don't know, I think one of the guys should do it." I said when he paused in saying anything. 

"Why?" Tank asked, making me glad that he didn't see me arguing as going against his wishes, but seemed curious as to my reasoning. 

"Because guys, no offense, never take a girl seriously when it comes to cars." I pointed out. "You get all macho and pigheaded and think we don't know anything, which isn't always true. So even if I call, I may get blown off. If a guy calls, they might be at least placated for a few minutes. Based on what the person who answers says, then we can figure out if it sounds like a legit company or not." 

Tank didn't say anything for a few seconds before he nodded slowly. "Good point and I formally apologize for my gender's pigheadedness." I thought I saw the ghost of a smile on his face but I couldn't really tell before he turned to look at Lester. "Santos, you call once Stephanie gets the number." I caught the look Tank shot me and got right on that, looking up the company on the internet. There was a number and address so I called it out for Lester to type into his phone. 

He put the phone up to his ear and I guess it was ringing for a few seconds before he spoke. "Hey, this is Luis Guerrero." He said in a heavily accented voice that shouldn't have turned me on as much as it did. But it did. Damn it. "I have a 1969 Dodge Charger and I was wondering if I could bring it by the shop and have it appraised and looked at to see if I need to get someone to do some maintenance on it." He listened for several seconds before speaking again. He snapped his phone shut and looked at us. "It's definitely a ruse. First of all the dude was on a cell phone, which was a big tell. Second of all, he told me they didn't work with 'those types of cars', which was a laughable lie if he was going to lie about anything. A 1969 Dodge Charger is a collector's wet dream, especially since Dukes of Hazzard popularized it in the 80's."

Tank nodded as he listened to Lester. "Alright, I'll send Cal and Hal along with Binkie and Hector down there to check out the address. Can you get that for me, Bomber?" 

I nodded and copied down the address on a pad that Vince handed me. I handed it to Tank and caught his eye. "If the kids are there, I want to be there when you get them out." I told him, trying to make him see that I wasn't going to take no for an answer. 

I saw several emotions flicker on Tank's face before he spoke. "I'll make you a deal." He said, leveling me with a look of his own that was a lot more effective than mine probably was on him. "I'm going to make the guys I send watch over the place for a few days, three at most. I want to have some intel to build charges against the Soloman's so we can finally put them away for a long time. If you work on some skills between now and then, I'll let you go down for the takedown so you can ride back with your nieces." 

"Work on what skills?" I asked, having a feeling I wasn't going to like this much. 

"B&E, self-defense, how to use a gun, getting yourself out of handcuffs, and you won't accomplish much in about a week's time, but I figure if you start getting in a little better condition cardio wise, it'll be good for you to do the self-defense and for you later on when you go after skips." Tank rattled off and I had to admit, it was a good argument and he knew I'd do just about anything to get to go with them on that takedown. 

"Alright I'll start work on it tomorrow." I promised him. He nodded and left the apartment after a simple goodbye. 

Gulp! What have I gotten myself into?


	6. Working It Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized I hadn't been naming my chapters. Oops. Sorry.

I knew as soon as I stepped into the gym that I was going to regret making that deal with Tank. What was I thinking? I could've easily snuck there after the guys who were going for the takedown headed out and been there when it all went down. I was fairly sure that no one would've forced me away if I was already there. Right? That was my rationale anyway, but here I was and I was pretty sure no one would let me renege on the deal so I had to suck it up and put on my big girl panties as my Grandma Mazur always said and do what I needed to do. When I walked into the gym, I saw Vince waiting for me, but he didn't look ready for a workout, which made me wonder why I took the time to change into a sports bra and workout pants if we weren't going to do any actual working out. I guess he must've seen the look on my face because he grinned widely at me. 

"Oh this isn't the only thing you're going to be doing today, so you're dressed fine. But we're not starting with a workout." He told me. 

"What are we starting with, then?" I asked, trying to keep the petulance out of my voice. These guys were helping me on their own time and out of the kindness of their heart, I couldn't exactly get pissy at them because of the schedule someone neglected to tell me about. 

"Breaking and entering." He told me, walking over toward me. He led me out of the room and to a small room that only had two chairs in it and I had to admit, I was confused. "First thing's first, picking a lock. That's something you'll need to know so you can get into, and out of, wherever you need, or not, to be." 

Made sense to me so I followed when Vince sat in one of the chairs, and I sat in the other. He put a case on the table and opened it up, showing off instruments that looked like a dentist phobics worst nightmare. I had to suppress a grimace since I knew it had been far too long since I'd been to the dentist myself. "Holy crap, Vince, what am I supposed to do with this?" 

"Don't worry, you're not going to use all of it. At least not right now. All of it's just a fancy way to do the same thing. We're not going to bother with most of it." He took out what looked like a teeny little wrench like I'd seen my dad use that came in what looked like a boyscout knife once and another that looked almost like a metal nail file and handed them to me and pulled me over to the door and locked it from the outside. "Ok. So let me walk you through how a lock in a door...or well pretty much anything...works. Pin and tumbler locks are made up of a cylinder that can rotate within the housing. When it's locked, the cylinder is kept in place by several pairs of pins. The top pin of each pair protrudes into the cylinder and the housing, which keeps it from turning. When the right key is inserted, it pushes the pins up so that they no longer enter the cylinder and the lock can be opened." He paused here to see if I was going with him so far. 

I took a second to think about it and nodded, it seemed pretty straightforward so far. He took the instruments from me and held them up. "This is called a pick and tension wrench.There are different picks which are used for different things, but we'll go over them later. The wrench." He held it up. I knew I'd recognized it. "Is used to apply pressure to turn the lock cylinder. He handed them back to me. "Ok now time for the lesson. Take the tension wrench and put it into the lower part of the lock and support it with your thumb and heel of your hand." I did so and he nodded when I got it right. "Now you gotta determine which way the cylinder has to be turned to unlock the lock. Pull toward you just slightly and then turn it clockwise and then counterclockwise. Tell me which one seems easier to you." 

I did so and tried to think it over. "Counter." I finally said. 

Vince didn't give any indication I got it right either way. "Ok so hold it counterclockwise as far as you can get it." Once I did that he handed me the pick. "Point it up and ease it in above the wrench. Feel around and see if you can feel the individual pins." 

I stuck my tongue in the corner of my teeth and wiggled the pick and nodded. "There's five." 

"Right." Vince said. "Do you feel them springing back when you push against them?" 

"Yes." I said, after I tested each of them. "One's not as easy though." 

Vince smiled at me. "That's the one we're focusing on. I'm glad you picked up on that. Push up on that one until you know it sets, you'll hear a small click when it does." I did so and the lock clicked. 

"Is it unlocked now?" I asked. 

"Not quite. Now figure out the next hardest one and do the same thing." He told me. 

I did so and I heard another click and Vince had me do it with the remaining three pins until they all clicked. 

"Ok now take your wrench and turn it counterclockwise. and use your other hand to turn the knob." He instructed. 

I did so and the door suddenly opened and I had to glance behind it to see if anyone had come along and opened it. When I noticed no one had, I yelped and jumped up. "I did it!" 

Vince beamed at me in a way that made me lose my train of thought as he pulled me into a hug. "You sure did, sweetheart! Damn good job, too. A lot of guys have to fiddle around for a while until they get lucky. You did the right thing on your first try. You just remember what I taught you, and keep a lock pick set on you. That also works for handcuffs. But the only thing you gotta remember about those is there's only one cylinder, so it's a lot easier pop them open." 

"Alrigh..." I started when Vince slapped a cuff on my wrist. I looked up at him in shock but he just grinned at me. I raised an eyebrow and held in a huff before I got to work. It was a little harder since I didn't have full use of my wrist on one hand but I managed to find a slightly comfortable position and started to work. I didn't quite do it as quickly as I did the door, but finally I felt the cuff pop open and Vince caught it before it could fall to the floor. Once I did it a couple more times, he put the cuffs on both of my wrists in the front and had me repeat that a couple of times. Then he moved the cuffs behind me. This was the most difficult of everything he'd been teaching me and he had to tell me not to get frustrated a couple of times. It took me nearly twenty minutes the first try to get the cuffs open but the next few times, since I knew what I needed to be doing, I managed to do it a little quicker each time.

Finally Vince was satisfied after I popped the cuffs off yet again. "You know, Steph, I'm not sure why you protested so much about doing this. I just taught you two things on your list in..." He looked at his watch. "Four hours. That's really damn impressive. It's just about repetition, though, sweetheart. The more you try, the better you'll get." 

"I will." I said, starting to hand the lock pick and wrench back to him. 

"No, you keep those." He told me, closing my hand over them. "That's for you to keep and practice with. We'll use the others later, but for now I want you to get as comfortable as you can with those." 

"Thanks, Vince." I leaned over and kissed his cheek. 

He smiled at me. "No problem, sweetheart. Now, I know it's not your favorite, but you go down to the gun range. Santos is waiting on you." 

I made a face, but resigned myself to my fate. I'd brought my gun with me and had it stuck into my pocket as I walked down to the gun range. No one was in there except Lester who looked up with a smile as I walked in. "You look like you're being led to the firing squad." 

"I feel like I am." I cracked, causing him to laugh as he walked over and wrapped an arm around me. 

"Calm down, Beautiful. I've not lost a man yet." He promised, kissing my forehead. 

"I'm not a man." I pointed out in a snarky way. 

"Trust me, I've noticed." He said a little huskily as he led me over to one of the booths. "Now...talk to me first. Where's your gun?" 

"Oh, it's here..." I reached into my pocket and pulled it out and Lester quickly put his hand on mine and held the gun away from us. 

"I...you su...I...don't...oh fu...crap..." Lester muttered and I swore he looked a little paler than his normal chai tea latte color. "Ok so...we're going to find a better spot for that. It doesn't have a safety on it and I'd really appreciate if you didn't shoot me in one of your lessons. Now, why don't you like using your gun?" He took the .38 Smith & Wesson from me and checked it for bullets. I smiled cutely at him when he looked over at me when he realized I had none in it. 

"Because it doesn't feel right." I told him before he could lecture me. I had other reasons, but this was one I thought he could help with easiest. Maybe teach me a way to hold it that was better or something.

Lester frowned. "Well then why the hell did you get it if you don't like the feel of it?" 

"Ranger got it for me." I shrugged. 

"Ranger picked your gun out." He repeated, looking at me blankly. 

"Yes. We went to the gun range and he had a conversation with the guy who ran it and got me that one and told me to become its best friend." I said honestly. 

Lester muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'fucking dumbass' as he walked over, putting my gun in a free holster on his hip, and started taking different guns out of a locked case, setting them out on a little ledge. He looked over his selection and nodded in satisfaction before waving me over. "Ok, we're fitting you with a different gun. I can't get anywhere with you if you don't like the feel of it. That's first and foremost the most important thing about having a gun, and using it. Now, just at first, I want you to just pick up each gun, hold it like you would to shoot it and see if any stand out as one that you think you could work with." He pointed at each gun, telling me each different type. He'd picked out a 9x19 mm Walther P99, a SIG Pro, a Colt M1911 pistol, a different Smith & Wesson which he called a .45 ACP Chief's Special Model CS45, a Browning 9x19 mm Hi-Power, a Jericho 941 F 9 mm, a Glock G21, a Kimber Stainless Steel Raptor II, and a Ruger SP-101. I'd never seen so many different types of guns up close in my life (and that included going to the gun range with Ranger). 

Once I did that, I passed on several of them which left me with the Smith & Wesson, Browning, Jericho, Glock G21, and Ruger. Next Lester had me learn to load each of them and I had to do it over and over until I felt like I got the hang of it. Some of them were complicated since you had to load big things Les called magazines into them and sometimes it was difficult to remember which way to put it. Seriously, the only magazine I'd ever dealt with before this was Cosmo. What did he expect? 

When I had that accomplished, Lester got to the part I really wasn't looking forward to: shooting. Seriously, was it so bad that I didn't like using a gun? I got by just fine with my taser and pepper spray. Well...except the time I sprayed myself in the eyes. But I didn't talk about that so no one needed to know. He handed me the Smith & Wesson first and showed me how to adjust my stance and hold the gun with both hands to stabilize the hold on it. I sighted the target like he told me and took my first shot.

...and would've fallen straight on my ass if Lester wasn't there to catch me. Oh. My. God. How embarrassing! 

I looked up at him, all but ready to argue that I knew this was a bad idea, but before I could speak a word, he grabbed the Smith & Wesson from me and replaced it with the Browning. I took a shot and while it didn't knock me back on my ass, it definitely knocked me a little more than I was completely comfortable with. I didn't even have to say a word, though, because I guess Lester saw it on my face and he replaced it with the Glock G21. I knew the Jericho was next in the line up but I didn't argue with Lester, figuring there was a method to his madness. The Glock felt a little bit better but something was still off. I couldn't really put my finger on it, though. Lester, as he seemed to be doing, had ESP about it and took it from me and put the Ruger in my hands. The Ruger felt good and I could definitely probably get used to using it. But it wasn't really my favorite either. That said, as a back up it wouldn't be a terrible gun to use. But Lester, again, grabbed the gun and put the Jericho in my hands. 

I knew as soon as I fired it that it was the gun for me. There was definitely a kick to it, but it didn't fell me like the Smith & Wesson almost had. I...felt powerful using it. Like I could take on the world with it in my hands. I'd never felt this way about a gun before and I liked it! 

I heard Lester mumble something that sounded suspiciously like "yep, knew that'd be the one", but since I had the protective headphone things on, I couldn't really tell. Since I was now comfortable with the gun, Lester had me practice shooting it on the target to get a feel for it. The first few times he had me just shoot and see where I landed. The first little paper dummy I shot, I got bullets in and around what I guess was the stomach area and the sides. It wasn't really the greatest but as Lester patiently told me, I was beginning and I would get better the more I practiced. He had me do it a few more times before changing it up. He told me he was going to call out specific body parts and wanted me to get as close as I could to that particular part as I could, but to not get frustrated if I couldn't get it in the first go. He gave me a tip to picture someone I really had a problem with to see if it made it easier to use them as target practice instead of a big black outline of no one in particular. 

I could do that! I had plenty of people I could picture shooting. 

Joyce Barnhardt. Bam! 

The guy at the Clip & Curl who gave me the terrible perm that one time that made me look like a mangy French poodle. Bam! 

Dickie Orr. Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

...Lester had to tell me to move on after that one. 

The guys who kidnapped my nieces.

I think I went into a blind rage with that one. Things fell away and I only stopped when Lester pried the gun from my hands. "Clip's empty, Beautiful." 

"Well get me another." I said gruffly. 

Lester seemed to understand what was going on and he pulled me to him tightly. "We'll get 'em, Stephanie." He said seriously, which made me wonder if that was the first time he'd ever called me by my real name. I think it must've been. Oh wow. I didn't say anything, though, I just leaned into him, letting him offer me comfort and some of his strength. I was almost dangerously close to tears, but I held them in. I didn't want to cry right then. I was glad Lester didn't rush me, though. But he finally did slowly pull away. "Ok, you go on down to the gym. Bobby's waiting on you. I know you're not looking forward to working out, but I think it'll be a nice outlet for all that anger you got in you. Shooting a little paper target only gets you so far." 

"Thanks, Les." I said, as I leaned up and kissed his cheek. Maybe he was right. Maybe I could do with a little exercise to get out all of my anger. I only hoped, in a way, that it involved punching something over and over. 

I got to the gym and saw Bobby there wearing black shorts and a Rangeman shirt that had the sleeves cut off that also showed off a little bit of his chest. Well if I couldn't beat the crap out of something, at least I had a nice view in front of me. "You're looking at me like you look at a Tastykake." 

That snapped me out of my thoughts and a shot Bobby a look. "Am not." I said a little petulantly. I was a little embarrassed to not only have been caught, but to be called out on it. 

"Sure." Bobby laughed. "C'mere, we are going to get you started working on your cardio." 

"What's wrong with my cardio?" I asked, as I walked toward him, my hands firmly at my sides so I wouldn't reach out and touch. 

"You can't walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded." He pointed out, and I wanted to argue. I really did. But the fact of the matter was he was right and I would be a lying liar who lies if I tried to argue the point. 

"So what are we doing?" I asked, just to try and save face. I'm not entirely sure it worked, though.

Bobby smiled at me, letting me know it didn't. "I'm going to get you on a treadmill. We're going to start flat, but then as you find it too easy, we'll increase the incline gradually, to give you more of a workout. Plus if you ever go running outside, it'll help not running on something that's just flat because no matter where you run, it's not going to be just a flat area. There'll be places that go up and down." 

That made sense to me, so I just nodded. This was probably going to be the suckiest part of my day, but I didn't want to complain about it. So I just let Bobby set me up on the treadmill. I had to admit, it wasn't that bad really. He started it out on a speed that was definitely faster than walking, but I wasn't flat out running either. I could do this. Right?

Thirty minutes later, I wasn't so sure. I was starting to sweat and my legs felt a little like jelly. But there was something about doing what I was doing that made me feel good...like I was accomplishing something. Maybe Ranger was onto something all those times he brought up me getting into better shape. His tactics going about getting me to do it just sucked, though. In fact, I wasn't really happy with how Tank went about it either, shoehorning me into doing it. But now that I actually was doing it, I had to admit that it wasn't so bad. 

Bobby came back around that time and stopped the machine, grabbing my arm when I was zoned out and didn't realize he was there and doing what he was doing. "Ok, Bomber." He laughed. "Let's stop that for today. Now you're going to go on and work with Woody for a bit. He wouldn't like it if I sent you over and made you work feeling like jelly." 

"Probably not. But as it is, I'm not going to be much use to him." I said, as I got off the machine and wiped my face with a towel that Bobby handed me. 

"Well do what you can." Bobby chuckled. "We have a week and from what Vince told me, he's pretty much done with his part, so all you have to do is really focus with me and Woody with a little more time with Lester in the range. You'll be all set. I have to say, Steph, you're exceeding our expectations. I do think we underestimated you." 

"No, you probably were just being realistic." I disagreed. 

"No, I really do think we underestimated you. But it seems like you underestimated yourself, too." Bobby shook his head, patting my arm. "I hope this week gives you a confidence boost. Seems like you need it." 

"Well we'll see how that goes." I said, as I took the water bottle he handed to me and walked over to the other part of the gym where Woody was waiting on me. He was in a tank top and shorts and looked droolworthy. While he was waiting, he'd been shadowboxing and doing a few drills in the ring and I stood back and just watched for a few seconds before clearing my throat to get his attention. 

Woody looked up at that and gave me a smile, coming over to the ropes of the ring and holding them open for me. It took a second for me to figure out how to get up on the side of the ring to even get in, but thankfully this wasn't the first time I've done something like this (not that I wanted to remember the whole Benito Ramirez thing) and I didn't make too much of an ass of myself. "Hey, Bomber. I'm glad Bobby didn't run you too ragged before he gave you over to me." 

"Barely, but I'm here and ready for whatever you throw at me." I said, trying to be game for it instead of automatically complaining like I wanted to. 

"Good. That's all I need to work with." Woody promised. "Now as you know, we're going to be working on self-defense." 

"Yeah, but I don't see how we're going to be getting anywhere." I blurted out. "I mean, I'm not exactly a big woman and you're like...massive." 

Woody grinned at me. "See, you're in the wrong mindset. Self-defense isn't always about being bigger, stronger. It's not about taking a person down because you can physically push them down and hold them down. It's about using what you can against your opponent to get them vulnerable and to be able to save yourself." 

"What if I just kick them in the balls?" I asked. 

Woody laughed at that. "Well sometimes guys won't let you kick them in the balls, or they'll be grabbing you in a way that won't give you the chance to and you're going to have to work on a different way of getting away." 

Made sense. "Ok so show me." 

For the next little while, Woody did just that. It was interesting and I felt like I was really learning a lot. Woody was a patient teacher and really helped me think of things instead of panicking and giving up. I wasn't sure I'd be able to employ that when I was faced with using what I learned today, but Vince told me if I worked on it enough it would be second nature and I would be able to do what I could to get away. I sure hoped so. 

When we got done, he sent me off to go back upstairs and shower and change and said he and the other guys would be up in a bit for lunch. I had a feeling they were going to be getting together to compare notes, but I couldn't prove it, nor could I really get mad. It made sense. I just nodded and thanked him, not kissing his cheek because I was sweaty, and got out of the ring, heading out of the gym and back upstairs.


	7. Winding Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter is pretty short compared to the last one and probably a couple of others. But I realized I was writing in third person past tense and had to go back and change it. So if it seems a little off, I'm sorry. But on the bright side I'm about to start the next chapter as well and I should have it up hopefully sometime by the end of the night.

I let myself into the apartment and went to dig out something to wear. I wasn't expecting to go anywhere so I just grabbed some pajama jeans (they were comfortable!) and a Rangeman spaghetti strapped tanktop Ranger had presented me as a joke once, hoping I'd wear it to bed on one of the nights he came over to stay. I hadn't, though. It wasn't the type of sleepwear I preferred. At least, that's what I'd told him when he'd asked. After that was done, I pulled my hair up into a ponytail and walked out to the main room to see Vince, Woody, Lester and Bobby there already, all talking. They fell silent when I walked in and I paused and raised my eyebrows at them, I tried for one but I could never master that. "You know, that's not at all suspicious." I cracked. 

Lester laughed and tugged me to his side when I was close enough. "Don't worry, Beautiful, we were just discussing your day today and comparing notes on how well you did. For the record, we think you really kicked ass at everything." 

I ducked her head bashfully, not used to taking such compliments. "I just did my best." 

"And you were fantastic, Darlin'." Woody enthused, smiling at her. "We all think so. You exceeded any expectations we may have had for you." 

I snorted at that. "You know I could take that two ways." I pointed out. 

"It's a good thing. It means you did fantastic and shoved it in our faces." Lester said, knowing by then just how to phrase something to keep me from getting upset. For the most part anyway, I think sometimes he liked seeing a little fire in me.

I deflated a little before I flashed a smile. "Well that's what you get for underestimating me." 

Lester laughed and leand in and kissed my temple. "Damn right. Now, we were thinking that since you did such a good job we could sneak in some Pino's, how does that sound?" 

I beamed at him then. "Sounds good to me! But you know, you should let me do it, I'm good at sneaking things in here, no one's caught on to the fact that I have a Tastykake drawer."

Bobby laughed at that. "Bomber, we do know about it. You can't hide the crinkling of snack cake paper." 

I blushed, since I didn't think I'd been caught. "Well no one's said anything to me about it." 

"You're my cousin's favorite." Lester teased. "You're pretty exempt from most rules around here." He jabbed her lightly in the stomach with his finger. "Lucky." 

I rolled my eyes. "Hardly, shut up. I am so not the favorite. If anything, I'm the freaking liability." 

Bobby snorted and shook his head. "You're wrong there. No one here thinks that about you. You know that." 

"Well I don't know why, it's not like I've not put all of you through like...a lot of crap." I pointed out. 

"Oh please." Bobby said. "Is it so weird to think we just did it because, oh I don't know, we like you?" 

Vince laughed and nudged him. "Be careful there, Bobby, that almost bordered on sarcasm. Someone might think you've been around Stephanie too much." 

"Hey!" I exclaimed, reaching over to slug his arm. Not that it didn't hurt me more than it did him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Umm...nothing?" Vince said innocently, before laughing at the look on my face. 

I shot him a look. "Oh yeah, sure. Whatever you say there, Vince." I decided to change the subject back to the issue at hand. "I'll go out and get whatever we want from Pino's and sneak it back in. I'm pretty sure I can manage it without causing a national Rangeman crisis." 

"Alright, since I know you're not going to let it go." Lester cracked. He handed over a pad. "We also talked about what we wanted." He took out a few bills and handed them over as well. "Should be enough there leftover for a tip and for you to get what you want as well." 

"So generous of you." I teased. "I'll be back in fifteen." That was probably generous but I liked to be optimistic. With that, I pocketed the money and list, and walked out of the apartment. 

When I got back, the guys had all changed out of their Rangeman uniforms. Good for them, not so good for me. They were all in either lounge pants or shorts of some kind and shirtless. Fuck. If this kept up I was going to need to get a stash of sugar to keep around. Tastykakes, a back up supply of Tasty Pastry confections, something. It already had been far too long since I'd been in the company of a man in that way, and it was starting to get to me. I shook those thoughts off and put the boxes on the table. "I walked into Pino's in basically my pajamas. I didn't realize it until I got looks. My mother will be blowing up my phone soon." 

Lester laughed as he leaned forward and opened one of the boxes. "Hey, they got a show. It's not like you're in skimpy clothes. That's not that bad." 

"I have on freaking pajama jeans." I pointed out. "That's not only bad, that's tacky." 

"Whatever works." Bobby chuckled. "I wouldn't worry too much. Most of the people there probably didn't even notice." 

I couldn't help but snort at that. Fat chance. Where I was concerned, everyone always noticed. My luck sucked that way. I was pretty sure I was now the talk of the 'Burg, if not all of Trenton. My phone was turned off and it would remain that way. 

We spent the next little while talking and getting to know each other and it was nice. I learned things about them I didn't know, like that Woody had been riding horses ever since he was four, or that Vince had an uncle who died on 9/11, or that Lester lost his virginity at fourteen (ok that one wasn't really a shock, but I didn't know it). I learned that Bobby's mom had died from breast cancer when he was 21 and he had a tattoo to memorialize her on his inner forearm. It wasn't very big but it was nice; a simple rose wrapped around a fence post that had her name and the day she was born and the day she died. On his dark skin, you never would realize he had it unless you knew it was there. 

When they asked about me, I wasn't sure what they knew and didn't know about me, so I shared a few random stories from my youth. When I told them about losing my virginity to Morelli in the Tasty Pastry and then running him over a couple of years later because of the fact that he wrote about it on the bathroom walls of just about every place in Trenton, they all laughed and agreed that he got what he deserved. 

Before I went to bed that night, I went to the bathroom and used the semi-privateness to check my messages. I sighed when the first one was my mom screaming at me about 'causing a scene walking around Pino's in my underwear' and grimaced when she guilt tripped me and told me I needed to focus more on finding my nieces. When I went to bed I was a little more subdued than earlier and silently cursed my mom for ruining the brief happiness I'd had.


	8. The Kids Are All Right

When the day came that we were going to go get my nieces from Michael and Phil Solomon, I couldn't help but be a little nervous. I'd worked hard the past couple of days on shooting, self-defense and cardio and Vince had taught me some B&E with more of the tools in the kit he'd given me, but that was fairly easy since he told the truth and most of them were just fancier ways to do the same thing. I'd managed to get pretty good with my gun and I felt like if I was faced with an attacker, I could at least subdue them long enough to get away, which Woody had assured me time and time again was the important part. 

So I wasn't sure why I was nervous. I guess because of the obvious unknown. Too many things could go wrong and I didn't want that for Mary Alice and Angie's sake. I owed it to my nieces to make sure they got home safe and sound and I knew I'd do everything in my power to make that happen. I also knew the guys going with me would make that happen, too. 

Tank had Woody, Lester, Bobby, and Vince going with me while Cal, Hal, Hector, and Binkie were already there on account of they'd been keeping watch over the place. I knew another few teams were going to the other places as well. This was a Rangeman wide job and it would most likely turn out to be the biggest one they'd ever taken on. Everyone knew the gravity of the situation and everyone was taking it seriously. Everyone had been focused ever since we had a meeting a couple of days before to lay out what was going on and I was glad for that fact. I knew that in the end, this would be the best outcome we could hope for and the kids we find would be taken back home.

Once we got to East Orange, I felt the adrenaline in me kick up a notch. I'd noticed anytime I went into something like this lately, that's what happened. The guys had told me that, that was natural and they all felt it, too. The trick was just to keep it to a manageable level until I needed to use the adrenaline to get me through something. I didn't like to think about using anything to get me 'through something', but I had to admit, it was pretty sound advice. 

I was knocked out of my musings when we suddenly stopped and I saw the building in front of us. Hector had called in earlier and said there were kids there and my job was to try and get in and get them out a way that wouldn't alert anyone we didn't want alerted ie Michael and Phil Solomon. I wasn't sure if I could do that, but I was definitely going to do my best. Hector came up to the vehicle then and leaned in, speaking Spanish to Lester. It was then that I really wished I'd taken Spanish as an elective in high school instead of French (which I could barely remember past parlez-vous Francais? which didn't help me much). Once he was finished, Lester looked back at me. "Left side of the building there's a catwalk. If you go up all the way it leads right to the room the kids are being kept. Michael and Phil are in a lower room on the other side of the building so if you can keep the kids relatively quiet you can sneak them out." He pointed over to where several ambulances and police cars were waiting. "The ones who have pressing injuries go there, the others we'll get home. Once you give the all clear, we'll go in and intercept the Solomons." 

I nodded and psyched myself up, checking to make sure I had my gun, pepper spray, and taser all on me. Then I got out and headed to the building, ignoring the nerves bubbling up inside of me.

I found the fire escape and was glad that it was already down, ready for me to climb up. I thanked God that I had been working on my cardio and started my ascent, working my way up as quickly and as quietly as I could. I tried to keep away from the windows as best as I could, but I felt confident that no one would see me since the brothers were on the other side of the building. 

As soon as I got to the right room, I checked the window and eased it open, peeking inside. I held in a gasp when I saw it was filled with little girls aged four to what I guessed was around seventeen. I was momentarily shocked before I slid inside. "I'm here to help you." I said immediately, and the relief emanating from them was palpable and flooded me with emotions. But before I could worry too much about that, I saw two familiar little girls coming toward me. 

"Aunt Steph!" Mary Alice exclaimed (albeit quieter than her normal volume), throwing herself at me. I felt relief wash through me as I hugged both her and Angie to me, blinking back the tears. 

"Are you two ok?" I asked, wondering what I would do if either of them said no. 

"Yeah, we're fine." Angie said. "We've been kept here since we were taken, and they were going to move us to the Netherlands in two days. We heard them talking about it." 

"Well that's not going to happen." I said seriously. I stood up straight and looked at the girls. "Ok, go out this way on the fire escape and go down it. Follow the building around and those of you who're injured in some way, or need to be looked over, go to the ambulances. Those of you who are ok, you go on and someone will take you home." Once I saw all the girl's out to the fire escape, I let Mary Alice and Angie out in front of me and went behind them, just to make sure nothing happened to them. Plus I didn't want to let them out of my sight right then. I felt so relieved to have them back that I could've cried and I wouldn't let anything go wrong now. 

I managed to get them to the SUV that had Lester, Vince, Woody, and Bobby in it and even though Angie said they were ok, Bobby looked them over anyway. He deemed them ok except that it seemed like they'd been a little dehydrated and malnutritioned. That was confirmed with Mry Alice said that they weren't fed or given anything to drink a lot of the time and when they did get something it was only enough to 'keep them alive'. That made my heart clench. 

After Bobby said they were ok, I ushered them inside while Lester and Woody went with Tank, Hal, Cal, and Hector in to grab the Solomon's. I didn't want to know what was going on with that, so I just sat patiently and talked with the girl's about anything and everything that popped into my mind. I laughed a little when Mary Alice asked me if she could get Valerie to get her a pony now. Gotta love a kid with priorities. I hugged her to my side and told her if I had the money, I was tempted to get her one myself. Not that I had a place to keep one.

Once Woody and Lester came back and I watched Michael and Phil being loaded into a cruiser (none too gently I saw to my satisfaction), I let the girls curl up against me and fall asleep on the way back to Trenton. Both girls were dirty and in need of good TLC, but they would be ok in time. I just hoped the whole ordeal didn't mess with them too badly. I sent a prayer up that they'd be ok and zoned out the rest of the way back to Trenton. 

Predictably, Val and Albert were beside themselves when they got Mary Alice and Angie and I had to awkwardly hold the babies while they fussed over them. But finally Vince took pity on me and scooped both of them up and held them like an old pro, fussing over them and making faces as he bounced to keep them both happy. I purposely didn't watch too long because it did things to the biological clock I had inside me that constantly reminded me that I didn't want to be a mom but oh wow the hot Italian guy fussing over my nieces really did something to my ovaries. It was a combination that made me feel a little frayed at the edges. 

After my mom and Grandma got in their own fussing and Val took the babies back from Vince, mom zeroed in on me and then looked at Vince and I felt a gulp work its way up from my throat before her first words were spoken. "You should come to dinner tonight, Stephanie." She said. She nodded at Vince. "Bring him. Six sharp or the roast will dry out." Before I could even say anything, she ushered Grandma back to Big Buick while Val and Albert ushered their kids to their mom-mobile. 

I stood there, stunned, and chanced a look at Vince who thankfully looked as taken aback as I was. "What'd we get ourselves into?" He asked. 

"Uh, my mom's Italian." I said, knowing since he was Italian himself, he would probably understand.

The grimace that came to his face told me he did and I couldn't help but giggle. "Oh it's not funny." He sighed. "So your mom thinks...well could be worse I guess. My mom would probably think the same thing." He turned fully toward me and looked at me. "How do you want to play this? Do you want to act like I'm your boyfriend, since that's probably what she thinks?" 

I stared at him gobsmacked, unable to really come up with something to say. Was he crazy? Why would I...

He cut off my inner ramblings and gave me a wry smile. "Come back to Haywood, we have a while. I think it's time we all talked." 

Fuck. That never endend well, did it?


	9. The Truth Comes Out And A Family Inquisition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry this came so late. I kind of lost inspiration for this story. It's not getting the feedback I was hoping it would, but I still have feels for it, so I'm not giving up just yet. Also I made a boo boo in the last chapter, I believe. I'm fairly sure Stephanie's mom is Hungarian, not Italian like I stated. I'm sorry. It's rectified in this chapter. As an apology of sorts for making you wait so long for an update I tried to make this chapter a little longer.

I spent the ride back to Haywood nervous as to what the guys wanted to talk to me about. In my experience 'we need to talk' or any variation on those words were never a good thing. At least where the men in my life had always been concerned. It was funny, I should have felt pretty good right then. We got my nieces back, safe and sound, along with all the other girl's that had been taken. But there I was, my nerves about to eat away at me. Why couldn't things just go well for me for once?

Of course it was right about that time that I realized this didn't have to be a bad thing. Right? Maybe it was just a fancy way of saying they needed to debrief about what went down. That happened anytime Rangeman had a mission like that, right? Sure. At least that was what I was going to tell myself until I knew otherwise. An ostrich sticking its head in the sand, that was me! 

When we got back to Haywood, I went upstairs with Vince, Woody, Lester and Bobby and when I noticed we weren't going back to the main floor, all hopes of a debriefing went out the window, but I tried not to think too negatively as I let them lead me to the apartment. I guess I wasn't doing as good of a job as I thought when Lester nudged me. "Would you stop acting like we're leading you to your beheading, Beautiful?" He chuckled. "Calm down, everything's ok."

I gave him my best smile, which was admittedly a little shaky, and walked in to the apartment, shedding the jacket I had on, letting Bobby take it from me to hang it up. I tried to make my walk to the couch seem casual, but I think the way I collapsed down on it gave me away. But the good thing, I guessed, was that as soon as I sat down, Lester sat on one side of me, Woody sat on the other, Vince sat down on the coffee table in front of me and Bobby sat by him. I sort felt boxed in, but I tried not to show it. "So...I'm glad everything went ok." I tried, when none of them said anything. 

"Yeah, but that's not why we're here." Lester said, taking my hand in his large one. "We have something to talk to you about. We've actually been wanting to do it a while now, but with the thing with your nieces and all happening, we didn't think it was an appropriate time." 

"Well what is it?" I asked, looking over at him. 

"Stephanie, how do you feel about us?" Lester asked me. Uh oh, he used my real name. That made me squirm a little. 

"Oh uh...well you know I like you all." I said diplomatically. Yeah...coward. That's basically what I was, I couldn't deny it. 

"Yeah, but..." Bobby shook his head and I looked at him, waiting for him to speak again. "That's not exactly what we mean, Bomber. See...we all like you. As in...we all care for you, about you." 

"Well that's nice." I flashed a smile at him. "I care about all of you, too." 

"Neither of them are really putting it in a clear way, darlin'." Woody sighed. 

"No kidding." I muttered, even though I knew in my head where they were probably going with this. 

"We all love you and want to be with you." Woody laid it out there. I had to admit, I admired him for his blunt honesty, even if it floored me enough that it was finally said that I couldn't speak for several seconds. 

"You mean like pass me around between you? Doesn't that make me sound kind of whorish?" I blurted out before I could stop myself. "Oh God, my mother would die of a stroke. Not to mention the 'Burg would have a field day with that. Not that I'm not already always the talk of the..." 

"Beautiful, Stephanie, stop." Lester put a hand on my arm and I immediately went quiet. "Listen, it's not like that. What we'd have? Would be between us. No one else would have to know and if you needed to save face in front of your mother, you can always have Vince pose as your only boyfriend..." He flashed a smile. "We know she already seems to approve." 

I groaned. "She invited us to dinner. I'm already dreading it." 

"I'm not." Vince shrugged. 

I turned toward him. "You don't know what dinner at my parents house is like." 

"No, but I'm Italian." Vince said. "So I know what an Italian mother is like when she gets going." 

"My mom's Hungarian." I muttered. "Even though she's always tried to pawn me off on an Italian man. I think she wants me to have what she and dad have...which is sweet...in theory. But still." 

"Well then I should make her happy." Vince flashed me a smile and I instinctively smiled back. 

"Can you say you aren't attracted to us, Bomber?" Bobby asked me. 

"Awfully cocky of yourself aren't you?" I cracked, deflecting yet again. When he just stared at me, I sighed. "Ok. Yes, I am attracted to...all of you. Does that make me sound bad?" 

"No, not at all." Woody laughed. "Look, all of us...we've had a thing for a while now. We've never really defined it, and we've grown close, we can't say it's a casual thing anymore. That's how it started. Something to just...be a comfort to each other. But it's grown past that. But we all miss a woman being in our lives." 

"Don't think we just asked you because you're a woman though." Bobby cut in. "That's not the case. We all care for you individually, and we all love you. We've seen you through a lot of ups and a lot of downs and we all have a huge respect for you as well. It's not something we've taken lightly, we came to this decision because we all think you're the best girl for us." 

I knew I was blushing, but I couldn't help it. All of this was overwhelming and I couldn't believe someone was sitting there talking about me like I was the best thing since sliced bread. I mean, let's face it. I had more than one person in my life who thought I was incompetant at...well just about everything and if I was being truthful with myself, I'd even started believing it myself. But I couldn't help that. When you had people telling you almost everytime you talked that you were terrible at whatever it was they wanted to bring up, it was a blow to your ego. In fact, the fact that they had spoken so well of me made me tear up. Damn Hungarian hormones. Usually they're a little more predictable than this. I wasn't the type to just cry all willy nilly.

"I don't know what to say." I admitted. "I mean...are you sure? You all know I'm a handful." 

Lester laughed. "Well if you ain't noticed, Beautiful, so are we." He wiggled his eyebrows at me when I looked up at him and I couldn't help but laugh. "We get into a hell of a lot more shit than you get up to." 

"Yeah but when you do, you're not on the front page of the paper." I snarked under my breath. 

Lester laughed again and hugged me to his side. "Well no." He conceded. "But you're a lot more good looking than us, so you're better suited to be on there than we are." 

I snorted and rolled my eyes, elbowing him lightly, not that it did much good. "Yeah yeah, keep sweet talking me. I'm a Jersey girl, that won't work." 

Lester leaned in and kissed my temple. "Oh I'll do more than sweet talk you." He murmured in a low voice that reverberated right through me. Oh holy hell, Red Hood! Lester laughed loudly and I saw the others laughing pretty hard themselves. "Red Hood?" 

I blushed bright red and silently prayed for the ground to swallow me up. "Well I call Ranger Batman." 

"We know." Bobby interjected, grinning. 

I sighed and just decided to blurt it out. "Ok so in the comics, there's a Robin for Batman and he's...a little rough around the edges. He and Batman don't always see eye-to-eye. So at one point he gets 'killed' in an explosion but comes back and he's the Red Hood and he's...kind of the bad guy, but more vigilante than anything." 

"So you see me as the rougher version of Ranger." Lester clarified.

"I guess, in a way, yes." I said a little meekly.

Lester thought that over and then shrugged. "That's actually a pretty accurate assumption." He admitted. "Of course Ranger ain't Mr. Innocent, but I'm definitely the rougher one." 

"Oh boy." I muttered.

Lester chuckled and kissed my temple again. "Just let me know when you want to get up close and personal with the Red Hood." He teased, causing me to shove at him again. 

"If I'm going to dinner at my parents, I need to get started getting ready." I said, sighing. 

"Before you go." Vince said. "Just...tell us. Are you interested in pursuing this or not?" 

I bit my lip and looked at each of the guys in turn and they all had such unlocked want, need, and hope on their faces that I could feel my resolve being wiped away. "Yes." I admitted. "Yes, I do. But...we have more to talk about." 

"After dinner." Lester promised. "For now you go and do what you need to do to get ready. Vince will take you to your dinner and when you get back here, we all will talk more." 

"Alright." I hesitated before leaning in and hugging Lester and then following that by hugging the other guys. After that, I rushed off to start getting ready, not wanting to see what kind of reaction my actions got. I could hear them start talking as I went into Lester's room where my belongings were and grabbed things I would need before locking myself in the bathroom.

About an hour later, Vince and I were pulling up to my parents house, I began to get nervous. I'd gone a bit overboard, putting on a nice bell sleeve top that showed off the moderate cleavage I had, and a pair of nice dress pants with my chunky black heel shoes. My hair was styled in loose curls and I had on 'nice dinner party Jersey-style make-up'. Vince was dressed similarly in a black button up (would it kill these guys to wear color every once in a while?) and dark khaki pants. He looked edible and I was having trouble not leaning over and taking a bite. 

As we got out of the car, I noticed both Grandma Mazur and mom standing in the doorway to the house and I held in a groan. This was already shaping up to be a nightmare. But at least Val and the kids weren't there. My mom and grandmother would be enough of an embarrassment. 

We walked inside and my mom was back to true form since Mary Alice and Angie were back safe and sound. "You made it just on time, but I have to say, it was cutting it close. But the roast isn't dry yet, so dinner isn't a bust." 

"Sorry mom." I said automatically, more because I knew she was expecting it than I was actually remorseful because of my supposed crime in her own mind. It was better to just go along with it and keep the peace. We were ushered to the dining room where dad was already sitting. Thankfully Grandma Mazur was in the kitchen as we came in so Vince didn't have to get groped. At least right then. There was always the possibility that he wasn't out of the woods yet. 

Once we were all sat down to eat dinner (Grandma Mazur on my other side that Vince wasn't sitting on, which I think was to his relief), mom started in as soon as everyone had a portion of the food. "So, Stephanie, don't you think you should introduce us to your boyfriend." 

"Mom, he's not really..." I started. 

Vince cut me off, however. "I'm Vince, ma'am and may I say you have a lovely home." He flashed mom a smile and even I was a little dazzled by it. 

"Oh, why thank you." She said, a little flustered. "So...Vince...that's an Italian name right?" I ducked my head to hide my eyeroll but I'm fairly sure Vince saw it because he lightly knocked his arm into mine and when I looked over at him he winked. 

"Yes, I'm second-generation, ma'am." Vince said respectfully. "My gradmparents were from Italy. They migrated to New Jersey in the 50's and my parents were born here." 

"Oh, that's quite the story..." And if I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't have believed this was the beginning of Vince winning over my mother. But there we sat, all through dinner, and not one barb was sent my way. It was amazing and I just sat back and let him take most of the attention as I ate. 

But not only did he win over my mom, but he won over my dad as well which was a huge shock. It started when my dad asked Vince if he served and when Vince said he was in the army for a while, and they started talking specifics about all of that stuff that went over my head, I could see my dad warming up to him in a way he never had with Joe. It sort of made me want to throw the fact in my mother's face, but I refrained. 

By the time we left, Vince had both of my parents eating out of his hand and my grandma had only been a little inappropriate. Thankfully it was mostly to me as the only real big thing she managed to do was lean over and ask me how big his package was. I was so shocked by the question that I blurted out 'it gets the job done' instead of the litany of things that I could've said. I glanced over at Vince and saw him smirking at me. I blushed and ducked my head, shoveling more food into my mouth. 

When we got into the car, I felt stuffed, and slightly embarrassed, but I thought it definitely could've been worse. "I think your parents liked me." Vince commented, as he started the SUV and headed back to Haywood. I held the plates upon plates of leftovers my mom sent with us (another testament to how much she liked Vince, I think) and laughed. 

"You could say that again." I said, shaking my head. "I haven't ever seen them like that. My mom has only ever liked Joe, well and my ex Dickie, and my dad has never liked a boy I brought home to meet them. He barely even looked at Dickie and he only ever tolerated Joe. So I'd say you won them over." 

"Damn I'm good." Vince said, causing me to roll my eyes when he smirked at me. "Probably your mom will even want to have us married off soon." 

I laughed but it came out a little hysterical. "Let's not get too ahead of ourselves." I said, just grimacing at the thought of it. "I mean...I was married once before and look how that turned out. Not one of my finer moments." 

"Well he was a dick, literally." Vince pointed out. "Fuck that guy, if he couldn't see what an amazing girl he had and chose to let her go for a piece of ass, then his loss, my gain." 

I ducked my head. "You...you really think that?" 

Vince pulled up to Haywood and parked, reaching over to take my hand. "I do think that." He said seriously. "Stephanie, look at me." When I looked up he went on. "I know you've had a lot of people in your life who've knocked you down, told you that you ain't shit. But let me tell you something, you are. You're so bright, Stephanie, so...your knack for figuring out stuff out of the ordinary blows me away. I've never seen someone with instincts like yours. Add that on top of what you learned leading up to your nieces being found and saved? You're going to be one fucking hell of a bounty hunter. I wouldn't want you on my ass." He gently brushed his hand over my jaw with a smile. "Not to mention you're gorgeous, you have an amazing body, you're nice, you're more kind than I've ever seen anyone be to just about everyone who comes your way, and...well hell I can think of about a dozen more things to say but you're already bright red and in tears...which I hope is a good thing." 

"It is." I promised, batting at the few tears that had fallen out of my eyes before I could stop them. "I'm just touched is all. No one's ever said such nice things about me before." 

"Well I hope to have the chance to say that and much more to you from now on." Vince said. Then it was like he realized he was slightly pressuring me so he opened his door and got out, coming around to my side to open my door (did I mention that was a thing about him? He insisted on opening all the doors for me. I was going to get spoiled if I didn't watch it). 

We rode up to the apartment and I saw that Lester, Bobby and Woody were already ready for bed it seemed. Lester was stretched out on one of the couches, wearing pajama pants that had Cartman all over them saying 'screw you guys, I'm going home' and Bobby and Woody were curled up together on the other couch. Bobby was in a pair of white sweat pants that had been cut off about four inches above the knee and stuck out in contrast to his dark skin in a good way, and Woody was in a pair of loose basketball shorts that rode low on his hips, showing off the v of his stomach. I was hit by the notion that all I wanted to do was curl up with them and relax. Before I could question that too much, I cleared my throat. "Since we all seem to be ready for bed, I'm going to go change myself, I'll be back." I retreated back to Lester's room and let out a small sigh of relief. Being around them was going to kill me...but I think I'd die happy. 

Deciding it was about time to give them a taste of their own medicine, I dug around to see if I could find something that would effect them as much as they effect me. Finally I found it. I had an old camisole that I'd only wore a couple of times in red that I thought for sure would work. It was slightly sheer up top, showing off the curve of my breasts, and the bottoms had sheer material on each side, showing off a bit more skin than I was normally ok with. It came with a silk robe that I put on and loosely tied. Once I was sure I looked ok, I went and washed off my make-up and added just a bit of eye cream so I did't have any dark rings and a little mascara to make my eyes stand out. Just to take it a bit further I put on some lip balm that had a slight red sheen to it and tasted like cherries. I smirked as I looked at myself in the mirror. The boys wouldn't know what hit them. 

I walked out to the living room and saw that Vince had changed while I was gone and was in a pair of sweat pants that had some sort of military logo going down the leg. The guys were talking so I cleared my throat to get their attention. "Any room for me to snuggle up in there?" I asked in my best coy Betty Boop voice. 

The guys looked over and it was like Pavlov's dogs. Each of them looked like they'd been whammied as they stared at me and I had to admit, it made me feel pretty desirable. It was a good thing I had my Hungarian hormones because I figured that keeping up with them was going to be a full time job if just looking like I did got them going. 

Lester was the first to snap out of it and he pushed at Vince who had been leaning against him. "Got a spot right here for you, Beautiful." He patted between his body and the couch and I walked over and couldn't help but zero in on the bulge that was now popping up from his lap. I glanced over and saw that each of the other guys had a similar predicament and I had to bite back a smirk as I sat down and put my feet up in Vince's lap. 

Tease me for weeks on end would you? These guys didn't know what they were in for.


	10. The Start of Something New

I ran my foot down Vince's lap and had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing when he visibly bit back a groan. I looked back behind me ad saw that Lester had been peeking down the front of my camisole. Well, that was fair since they were all barechested in front of me right then, and giving me such a great sight to look at. When he saw that I was looking, he quickly averted his eyes, but I'd already caught him. "So." I said, running my nail over the arm Lester had thrown around me just to have something to do. "Back to our conversation, you all...want me...as in to...be with you, and you're all together." I could've put it in a much more clear way, but I figured I was clear enough. 

"Yes, darlin'." Woody said, smiling at me comfortingly. I liked that about Woody. He was as big as a house, but was one of the least intimidating people when you got to know him. "That's what we want. But we also want you to have a say in things. It's not just about what we want, it's about what you want, too." 

"What I want." I laughed, unable to help myself and I noticed four frowns turned my way when I did. Well, I assumed Lester was frowning at me. "What?" 

"Why's that funny, Beautiful?" Lester asked me. 

"Because I don't know the last time that someone cared about what I wanted." I said honestly. "I mean, my mom has tried to pawn me off on Morelli almost ever since he got cleared of the charges once I brought him in on my first case." I listed on my fingers. "Then Morelli, when we were trying to make a go of things, never cared about what I wanted. All he cared about was me quitting my job because he thought I sucked at it, getting what he thought was an acceptable job, and settling down to get married and have kids. Ranger...well he wanted a little entertainment every once in a while with no commitment. I mean...I'm not asking much, I definitely am not looking for marriage or kids, but...faithfulness isn't too much to ask, I think anyway." That was probably the most honest I'd ever been to anyone, including myself, and I ducked my head. 

"That's not too much to ask." Bobby pointed out, making me look up at him. "It's really not, everyone wants that and they should have it." 

"Then why can't I get it?" I demanded, shocking myself a little with how intense my words came out. 

Lester hugged me closer for comfort and laid his cheek on my shoulder. "Beautiful that's exactly what we're offering. It may sound a little debauched but really what we want is normality. A chance to have exactly what you want. We're not going to ask you to change, we're not going to try and make you different in any way. Hell, none of us want that." 

I wanted to say 'what about making me train before we went and rescued my nieces?' But I realized none of them had a hand in that. That was Tank's command and the guys just helped me do it. They helped. They saw that I wanted to do it and supported me. That was a revelation that smacked me right in the face. Definitely not something I expected to realize. 

"I'm glad. I...I wouldn't ask that of any of you either." I promised, looking at each guy in turn. Well, three and the top of Lester's head since he wasn't moving. 

"We know." Bobby gave me a smile. He looked at Woody and they moved to sit by the couch next to where I was. "That's what we appreciate most about you." 

"Here I thought it was my good looks." I teased, unable to help myself.

Woody laughed. "Hell, darlin', your looks are definitely somethin' that stands out about you. You're gorgeous. But gorgeous girls are a dime'a dozen, what makes you special is your personality and everything else that makes you, you." 

I blushed, I'm sure, I could feel my skin heating up. "Ok well...at least I know we're all on the same page." I said, not really knowing what else to say to that. 

"We are? So...we're going to give this a go?" Bobby asked, trying not to look too hopeful. 

"Well...yeah, I mean...hell I'd be stupid to not want to try something." I blurted out. "All of you treat me better than any of the relationships I've ever had. I mean, let's look at it. One was a marriage where he cheated on me, the next was Joe and I'm pretty sure he cheated on me, even though I never really had proof and...to be honest, I'm not even sure if he really loved me like I wanted...hoped. Then there was the brief relationship...type thing where it turned out he was psychotic. Boy I really know how to pick 'em." 

"None of that's your fault, Steph." Vince pointed out. "You didn't make those two douchebags cheat on you, or that other guy turn crazy." 

"No, but..." I was stunned speechless when Lester leaned over and caught my attention, using my distractedness, he kissed me. Boy could the man kiss! Now I could see how he kept his reputation as a ladies man for so long, if just his kissing was this good, I could only imagine (fantasize) about what he was like in bed.

"Damn." Woody mumbled when Lester pulled back from me. "Those noises were downright pornographic, Darlin'." 

I blushed bright red. "Well you all knew I was a moaner." I blurted out before I could stop myself. 

Vince sent me a downright dirty look (although there was still some charm in it that only an Italian man could get away with). "Well if that's what we can get just from food and a little kissing, I can't wait to see what happens when we get you in bed." 

"I don't even know how something like that's possible." I mumbled, putting my hands over my face. "I mean, there's butt stuff..." 

"Do you do butt stuff?" Lester asked, sounding incredibly amused. 

"I never have before." I said honestly, my hands still over my face. "But...I guess I...would try it." 

"You know, girls I've been with before liked it once they got over the pain at first." Vince said casually. When I looked up at him with a half glare, he made a face. "What?" 

"Dude, you don't talk about chicks you've fucked with the girl you're with." Bobby reached over and slapped him on the arm. "Duh. That's just bad manners." 

"I was trying to make her feel better." Vince held his hands up in mock offense. "But, I mean...ain't too bad when I've done it...ok that's what I probably should've led with." 

"You mean you..." I trailed off, staring at Vince.

He laughed. "Steph, you knew we were all together." 

"Well yeah." I said, waving a hand. "But I mean...I didn't know specifics or anything." 

"We've all bottomed." Bobby said, ever the technical medic, willing to get right to the heart of matters. "We've all topped. We're alpha males, we don't like being the one getting fucked all the time. That's one other reason we wanted you, another way you can be good for us." 

"So I can let you go all alpha male." I cracked, looking at him dryly. "Well what if I want to be on top?" I asked, shooting him a smug look. But then I glanced around and saw that all of the guy's eyes seemed to be a few shades darker than normal. Uh oh. 

"Believe me, Beautiful, absolutely none of us would mind that. Not one bit." Lester said, leaning in to nuzzle at my neck, sending little waves of pleasure jolting through me. 

I realized if I wanted to get out of this without embarrassing myself, I needed to find a way to curb what Lester was doing. "You---oh wow---know my mom---sent leftov---oh my God that's good---ers...if...you're hungry..."

"What I'm hungry for ain't food." Lester mumbled, and his voice was so husky that I startled and in trying to clear my head, I flopped myself over onto Woody's and Bobby's laps. 

"Not that we mind, but we thought you were enjoyin' yourself up there, Darlin'." Woody teased, smiling at me as he wrapped his arm around my waist. 

"Well...I just...realized Lester was being selfish." I said lamely. "He's always the one that gets to cuddle up to me, he's kissed me...can't have him thinking he has privileges." 

"I agree." Woody said, before his lips descended on mine. Out of the frying pan, and into the fire has never been more appropriate!


	11. Back To The Grind

The next day, I felt pretty sore, but I know I woke up with a smile on my face. The night had started off fairly awkwardly, but once we got all the logistics straightened out (plus me bitching about my poor love life), it had taken a turn for the definite better. I stretched out on my back, smiling as I recalled some things. All my guys had been gentle, yet passionate, with me. It was a night I'll never forget. Mostly, because, well besides the obvious, I was bent in ways that I never knew I was capable of. I did things that if my poor Catholic mother found out, I'm pretty sure she'd drop dead from a stroke. Not that I wanted to do that...most of the time. Maybe I'd just wait until I was feeling a little more pissed at her. It would come, it always did. 

I rolled over, intending to get a little more sleep, when I collided with another body. It shocked me, considering I figured the guys would be out working. I cracked my eyes open and saw Bobby there, laying beside me, still asleep. When another set of arms came around my waist, I only barely held in a shriek of surprise. I turned my head and saw Woody laying there. I smiled when I saw the calm look on his face as he was sleeping. He looked like a (very large) little boy. I laid my head on Bobby's chest and closed my eyes, letting the familiar feel and scent lull me back to sleep. 

When I woke up again, it was to the smell of coffee and bacon. I made a low sound in the back of my throat and I heard a chuckle in response. "I knew that'd wake her up." I opened my eyes and saw Bobby leaning up against the headboard of the bed. He looked freshly showered and was dressed in just a pair of pants, making him look yummy. 

"What?" I asked, moving to sit up next to him. I looked over and noticed Woody next to me. He was still blissfully as naked as he'd been when we finally collapsed to sleep last night. 

"Bobby made us breakfast, Darlin'." Woody gestured to the empty plate on the bedside table next to him. 

"Mmm smells good." I said, as Bobby put my plate over my lap and handed me a cup of coffee. I briefly made sure it wasn't decaf before taking a few generous sips. "So, not that I mind, at all, but what are you two still doing here?" 

"Well I'm about to head out." Bobby said, kissing my temple. "I have a couple skips to round up. But Woody's going to stay behind until tonight. We both are assisting in some surveillance with a couple of the other guys. Les and Vince will be around though for dinner and all." 

"Cool." I leaned against him briefly. "Be careful out there." 

"I'm always careful." Bobby said, as he hugged me to him. 

"So'm I." Woody said, leaning against my other side. He kissed my cheek, making me smile. 

We sat there as I ate and I kissed Bobby when he had to leave finally. Woody took my plate and cup to the kitchen and we showered together (and a lot more). It was strange, in a good way, to just be with Woody on his own like that. He was a little less gentle than last night, but it was good and I'm pretty sure the ass print I left on the glass shower door was worth it, even if I briefly freaked out over how large it looked. 

Once Woody had to leave, I put on some clothes and decided that I needed to get out to the Bond's office. I hadn't been there since Mary Alice and Angela were kidnapped and I was fairly sure my files were backed up and Vinnie was probably throwing a fit. I was actually shocked he hadn't left any messages on my phone (once I checked to make sure that is). 

On my way out the door, I texted Lester and Vince to tell them what my plans were, smiling when almost immediately I got two texts back asking if I wanted some help. I texted both back to tell them I would look over the cases first, then see if I would need their help. I had to feel pretty good when all I got back was both telling me good look and to be safe. It felt good that they seemed to just have faith in me and didn't immediately try to shoulder their way into my plans. 

I stopped to grab some donuts at the Tasty Pastry, figuring Connie and Lula would forgive me if I showed up with two dozen assorted donuts. It really was nice to get back to the office, because as much as Vinnie was annoying to work for, I did enjoy the job and Connie and Lula were my best friends.

When I walked in, I heard a whoop that almost made me drop my donuts. "White girl, you finally came back!" Lula got up from the grungy couch in the room and power walked over toward me. Today Lula was in what looked like a plastic skirt in robin's egg blue, with pink Wellington boots that had bright red and robin's egg blue design's all over them. Her upper body was encased in a bright pink sleeveless shirt that had Betty Boop on the front with the words 'I wanna be loved by you...' in a fancy script under a neon-colored leopard print hoodie that, weirdly enough, had ears on the hood and a tail hanging off the back. On me, it would've looked ridiculous, but Lula made it work. 

"Yeah after everything that went on, I can finally get back to the regular grind." I said, as Lula came up and took the boxes from me, and then hugged me one armed. 

"I was so sorry to hear what happened to those poor nieces of yours." Lula mumbled, sympathetically, as she held onto me. "I was shocked something like that was going on here in Trenton. Really makes you wonder about a place like this." 

"Yeah, but they're back home and safe and sound." I said, as I patted her back. "They're fine, which I'm very glad about." 

Once I pulled back from Lula, I walked over to Connie who was in the midst of painting her nails a sparkly purple color that I guess matched the zebra-print scoop neck top she had on. You'd think their wild fashion sense would rub off on me, but I knew I'd just look ridiculous. Connie gave me a smile and nudged a stack of files toward me. "Vinnie's been on the warpath. He even had the nerve to call your granny to see where you've been. Boy your granny must've given him a real what for, considering after that he didn't question it much. He does complain about all the open cases, though. Some of those need to be brought in in two days, some you still have about two weeks on. The rest are in between there." 

"Thanks, Connie." I said, as I scooped them up and flicked through them. I looked up at Lula. "Do you want to ride along? I think I can get in a couple of these today maybe." Ok so one was Mooner, I knew I'd be able to get him in. 

"You bet your ass, it's been too quiet around here. I need me some action. Probably I'll even get to shoot someone." Lula said, as she shouldered her plum colored knock off handbag and started out of the office. 

"No." I insisted as I darted out after her, briefly mourning that I didn't even get to eat any donuts. "No shooting anyone. We're going to calmly bring them in." 

"Why's those hotties from Rangeman always get to shoot people and you always tell me not to?" Lula complained as she situated herself in the passenger seat of my car. 

"They don't always shoot people." I said as I got in as well. "Just...sometimes, when the need really calls for it." 

"So if the need calls for it, can I shoot someone?" Lula asked, as I pulled out of the parking space in front of the Bond's office just as I saw Vinnie's car pulling up the street. My luck was definitely good today. 

After I celebrated that victory, I turned back to Lula's question. Here's the thing. I could've said yes. But Lula can't objectively decide when a need called for shooting someone, and shooting someone for the hell of it. But I knew she wouldn't let it go until I answered her. "If I say you can." I said finally, figuring that was enough restriction. Then I got her attention onto something else. "The top two files on that stack." I gestured to where I'd sat it between us. "Those are the ones that need to be brought in in a couple of days. Read them to me." 

Lula opened the file on top and whistled. "Clint Welling." She said. "Forty two, and pretty hot if I say so myself." I glanced over at the picture and had to agree, the guy was pretty hot. He reminded me of a cross between Chris Evans as Captain America and Jeremy Renner. "Wanted for armed robbery, attempted murder, and attempted rape." 

Geez! Ok so...less hot now. That made me shudder. Why the hell was Vinnie giving me a case like that? "What's the bond?" 

"Twenty grand." She said, raising her eyebrows. "The hell you getting that kind of skip for?" 

"Probably Connie just mixed up the file. I'm going by Rangeman later, I'll drop it off." I told her. "For now just put it on the bottom. Who's next?" 

"Mooner." She told me, after opening the file. "Oh awesome, I need to score me some pot." 

I briefly closed my eyes, but realized this wasn't a good idea so I opened them back up. "I'm pretending I know nothing about that." 

I pulled up to Mooner's house and we got out and I knocked on the door. "Dudette!" Mooner exclaimed as soon as he saw me. He hugged me and the smell of pot almost knocked me down. 

"Hey, Mooner." I said, as Lula and I walked inside. 

"Did I miss my court date again?" He asked me, closing the door behind us and we all went over and sat on his couch. 

"Yeah." I nodded. "We'll get you rebonded, though." 

"Cool." We settled in to watch a few Jeopardy broadcasts and I ignored Lula buying pot off Mooner. Just when the smell was getting to me, I managed to talk Mooner out and we took him to the courthouse. I called Connie on the way and heard Vinnie ranting in the background. I was glad I was able to get off the phone with her pretty quickly. 

Once Mooner was rebonded, Lula and I took him back to his house. When we got back to the car, Lula looked over at me. "That pot got to me, I got me a serious case of the munchies, I need some fried chicken or something." 

Knowing I wasn't about to get out of it, I took Lula to Cluck-in-a-Bucket. When we got there, we both gaped at what we saw. A huge tree was going through the roof and there was a sign that proclaimed 'Down For Repair'. I looked at Lula and shrugged. "There's that new seafood place with the drive-thru." 

"Oh yeah, I been meaning to go there." Lula said, waving a hand. "Let's go." I dutifully drove to a place called Captain's Delight and pulled up to the big menu board in the drive-thru. Lula got something called the Captain's Special which had fillet fish, shrimp, crab cakes and two sides (she got corn and macaroni) and I got a two piece fish meal with okra and corn. We both got a small chocolate cake piece as well. I didn't get my sweets earlier, I needed something to tide me over. 

We parked in the parking lot of the grocery store nearby, since it was one of the older ones in Trenton and hardly anyone ever used it and ate our food. Once that was done, I took out another file. This one was a sixty-five year old woman named Marla Hosaka, which shocked me. I had to laugh though because she was taken in because someone called 'bingo' just after she did and apparently she needed to be the sole winner of the cash prize so she beat the crap out of the poor woman. It was a simple assault and battery charge. 

Lula and I drove there and I noticed that Marla had cats. A lot of cats. I looked at Lula who just shrugged. "I'm good, since me and Tankie are back on, I been getting me some allergy shots." I shrugged back and we got out and went up to the door. As I knocked, I heard a voice call that she'd be right there. The woman was sixty-five and it said she used a walker, so I wasn't in a hurry. I looked down as I felt something brush up against my leg and I noticed it was one of Marla's cats. I smiled but didn't make a move to do anything. I did, however, notice that a few were going after Lula. She frowned. "Hey, scat. I don't like cats, I just put up with 'em for my boo. Go away." She made a shooing motion with her hands. "Go. Scat, cats." 

I saw a few others coming at me and I immediately began to get uncomfortable. "Marla!" I called, knocking again. "I'm Stephanie Plum, I came to get you rebonded. Could you come out before your cats decide to attack?" 

"I just took a diuretic, I can't move." She called back. "They're sweet cats, you'll be fine. Just hold your damn horses." 

I wasn't so sure. "Marla, really, could you hurry?" 

"What part of diuretic did you not understand?" Marla snapped back. "Leave me to shit in peace 'fore I come out there and beat you like I did that bitch that took my money." 

"Now listen here, you crazy old bat." Lula smacked hard on the door, quickly approaching what I figured was rhino mode. "Your crazy cats got that look in their eye and they lookin' at us like we're a big platter o..." 

Lula and I looked at each other gobsmacked at the same time as we realized the same thing. "The seafood!" About that time one of the cats jumped on Lula's back, yeowling like it had gone crazy and another tried to climb my leg like a tree. I freaked out, as did Lula, and we took off from the porch, trying to get the cats away from us. Lula had a pretty gross scratch on her neck and cheek and I felt blood on my thigh and arm. I took out the file on Marla and thankfully she had a number that I called. 

"What?!" She finally answered. 

"Marla, this is Stephanie Plum, I work with Plum Bonds, who posted your bail." I rattled off. "I came to the door to take you to be rebonded since you missed your court date, but your cats were agitated, so do you think you can just come out to my car? I swear I'll get you rebonded quickly." I looked over as Lula cursed and saw three cats on the hood of my car and I saw another had jumped up and latched its paws on the cracked window on Lula's side, looking like those little Garfield toys people used to hang up in their cars with suction cups. 

"My cats ain't done shit." Marla snapped in my ear as Lula tried to get the cat unlatched in a harmless manner. "Maybe you antagonized them. But it don't matter, I ain't going. So fuck off." 

I looked at my phone in shock when I realized she hung up on me. "That bitch!" I said, a little pissed off. 

"Now kitty, you done pissed me off." Lula said, catching my attention. I looked over and gasped when I saw her taking her pepper spray out. "You're gonna get it now, you little monster, that was a $30 manicure." 

"Lula n---." I started to say but I was too late. Lula pressed the button and aimed it at the small space the window was cracked. 

The fall-out was instantaneous and I was even more pissed off. The cloud of fumes encompassed the inside of the small car and we both started hacking up a storm. We managed to get out of the car and I fell onto the street. I threw up a little bit and fought to get air, and I heard Lula doing the same on the other side of the car. I looked up when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and saw Marla standing there. "You don't look so good. I guess you ain't taking me anywhere." With that she turned around and walked back inside her home as I just stared in shock. 

It took about half an hour before I felt like I was able to do anything. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to drive, so I took out my phone and called Lester. "Hey, Beautiful." He answered almost immediately. "I was just about to call you. I'm out getting the ingredients for that dish you wanted to try. How spicy do you like your food?" 

"Les, I...help." I managed, my throat raw from all the coughing and the effects of the chemicals. 

"Shit...I'll be right there." He didn't even wait for an explanation before disconnecting the call. I groaned and rolled over onto my back. I would've asked Lula if she was ok, but I was still pretty pissed off. 

A little while later, I heard a car roaring up and two sets of foot steps heading my way. "Steph, are you ok?" Vince's face came into my eyeline and I grunted. "Fucking Lula." I managed. "She...pepper sprayed a cat from the inside...of our car." 

I saw Vince's mouth quirk before he slammed down his blank look. "Ok...let's go...where'd you get the scratches?" 

"Cats!" Lula answered for me as Lester helped her around the other side of the car. "Those slimeball, psychotic mongrels attacked us cause the stupid Cluck-in-a-Bucket got bashed in by a tree and Stephanie there made us go to the Captain's Delight." She snorted. "Wasn't that good anyway." 

Ok technically all the facts were right, but there was some flaws there I didn't immediately care about as Vince helped me into the back of the SUV he and Lester arrived in. He and Lester shared a look and Lester put Lula in the front passenger side. 

"Wait." I said as both guys started to get in. "I have files in my car I need. This is Marla Hosaka's place, and she's my skip." 

They shared another look and Vince went to my car while Lester went up to the house. Vince was back first with my files. "Steph, I think the car is unsalvageable." 

"Why?" I asked, holding in a sigh at the thought of losing yet another car. 

"You both left the doors open and some cats got in there." He explained. "They sprayed all over the damn thing, shit all over, tore up the seats. It's not pretty. It looks gruesome." 

I made a face. "I liked that car." I muttered. 

Lester got Marla into the back and I noticed on the way to the station she didn't say a word. I wonder how Lester accomplished that. I was fine with it though. 

Once we got Marla rebonded and took Lula back to Vinnie's I scooted up front so I could sit between Vince and Lester. "Oh." I said suddenly, remembering the file. I handed it to Vince since Lester was driving. "I think Connie gave me a Rangeman file by mistake." 

Vince flipped it open and his eyebrows shot up. "Uh...yeah, glad you didn't go for this one, sweetheart."

"What's it for?" Lester asked. 

"Armed robbery, attempted murder, attempted rape." Vince listed, making me shudder again. 

Lester closed his eyes briefly and it looked like he felt the same as I did about me going after that guy. 

We went back to Haywood and Lester dropped the file off with Tank and then we went upstairs. Lester had abandoned his shopping trip so he called Bobby and asked him to pick up some Pino's after their surveillance shift. Then he sat me down and disinfected my cuts. "Cats have curved nails." Vince explained, when I looked confused. "They can get all kinds of crap up in there so it's best to disinfect if you get clawed by them incase they stepped in something bad and it got stuck up in there and then embeded in your skin. Even kitty litter can whammy someone if it gets in the blood stream." 

I nodded and let Lester finish, before I went to change. I decided a little nap wouldn't hurt so I laid in bed and fell asleep, exhausted from my excursion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I appreciate all the reviews, they make me really happy. I love that there have been more people catching onto the story lately. I wanted to note, though, that regarding chapter length, I make them as long as I think they need to be (which sometimes can get around 1,000 words. I have 26,455 words for this story, which I think for the few chapters I have up is a really good length. Also I do sometimes slack off and I am sorry for that, but I can't force something to come when it doesn't want to. I apologize for that. I keep saying "I'll get them out faster" I know, but the truth is I do my best. So please take that into consideration. Now that more people seem interested, it does make me want to get things out quicker, but that isn't always possible. I am not abandoning the story, nor am I getting frustrated. I just want to let people know where my heads at where this story is concerned.


	12. It's Always The Old Ones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am absolutely horrified that it's been so long that I updated this. I never intended for it to go so long! To make it up to you I tried to make this chapter pretty long and right after I post, I'm going to start the next and I hope to get it up by the end of the day. I will absolutely do my best, you all deserve it, if there's any of you who've put up with waiting a month for an update! Again I am so sorry it's been so long and I hope you forgive me.

It was a big adjustment, being with four guys, who I still sometimes thought I didn't deserve, but I felt happy that I had it anyway. I felt as if I was finally content in my life instead of trying to chase a dream that would never come true. I wondered in the beginning of the relationship if it would really work, if the guys were as into this as I knew I could be with very little persuasion and funnily enough, a file from work gave me my answer. Back when I got the Clint Welling file, I put it off as a mistake on Connie's part, but come to find out, Vinnie slipped it in on purpose. Needless to say, my guys were not happy when they found that out. Tank had called the office when Connie had been out and Vinnie had stupidly told Tank he meant to give me the file, because 'she has to pick up the slack she left when she was gone'. Well that didn't go over well at all, and Vinnie very quickly found himself with an office full of Merry Men. They had a 'chat' with my cousin and Vinnie found out very quickly that his little ideas to get back at me were really not smart and better left in his head. 

After that, all the files I got were carefully scanned and a Merry Man (usually Bobby, Lester, Vince, or Woody) was at my disposal if I had to have back up (that wasn't Lula, who was---unpredictable at best). I could've gotten angry about it, but the truth was, I felt good that they cared enough to want to make sure that I was ok and didn't get the crap kicked out of me at work. Plus, it was good for my bank account. Since I'd semi-moved in with the guys, all I really had to focus on was fairly frivilous things. My shoe collection had grown by a few nice pairs. 

Which brought me to here. Another skip to get, more money to get. I was currently after Ed Posey. He was wanted for fraud. It sounded like a serious charge but the truth of the matter was, he was eighty five and had made up several fake identities to get social security checks. So it was a supposedly easy file that was sent my way for that very reason.

Except it really wasn't turning out to be that easy. 

I'd been after Ed for a few days and the guy was like the wind. Everywhere I thought to look, I learned that he just left. He was eighty five freaking years old, how fast could he move?! 

I was just about to get frustrated when I had an idea. Grandma Mazur. As eccentric as she was, Grandma was at the pulse of the senior citizens' goings on in not only the 'Burg, but Trenton as well. So if anyone could help me track down Ed, it would be her. 

"Oh sure, I know Ed." Grandma said as soon as I picked her up at the Clip 'n' Curl. "We had a thing for a while. Poor guy couldn't get it up if Gina Lollobrigida was in front of him in that outfit she wore in Solomon and Sheba. But he sure was fun. Spent money like it was candy. We'd go get the early bird senior citizen's special and then go out on the town. Why one time he took me all the way to Point Pleasant. We didn't get backc until almost 10 that night, your mom sure was fit to be tied, I tell you." 

Great, so not only did my grandma know Ed, she unknowingly helped him spend the money he embezzled from the government. I suppressed the urge to bang my head against the steering wheel of the loaner from Rangeman I was driving and focused on the important part. Ed. "So can you help me track him down?" 

"Oh sure." Grandma took out the cell phone she'd bought (that weirdly enough somehow had very large writing on the buttons) and scrolled through her contacts before pressing send. "Ed, you old devil, how are ya?" She exclaimed when he answered. "It's Edna...Edna Mazur...what do you mean you don't remember me? I was the one you said made you feel better than you had in thirty years and that was even when my dentures came out..." 

I vehemently tried to convince myself that she wasn't doing what I hoped she wasn't doing when her dentures fell out, but I had to figure that that kind of denial only happened in extreme cases, like when Lula tells herself she can pull off a size six, or when mom tells herself I'll eventually settle down to marry and have kids. I just don't think I'm cut out for that kind of commitment to plausible deniability though.

I was cut out of my musings by the sound of Grandma snapping her phone closed. "I got him to agree to meet me at bingo tonight." 

I groaned. "Grandma. Why bingo? There's going to be like sixty senior citizens there! They're going to judge me for making a scene. Hell, mom's going to get called before I even step out of the senior center!" 

"Well I can't help that." Grandma said. "I'm delivering him right to you, it won't be any easier. Plus I have a real good feeling about bingo tonight."

I hoped she meant for me. 

I had a few hours to kill, so I took Grandma to the mall. Once upon a time, I promised myself I would never make that mistake again, but I was desperate and I wasn't about to go back home with her for that long without a contingency plan to get out of it. Unfortunately, I didn't have one, so I had to make due with the mall. 

Hours later, I was so ready to bean myself I was seriously considering it. Grandma had done her absolute best to simultaneously drive me crazy and embarrass the hell out of me, and it had pretty much worked. It all started when we went to FYE. Grandma had suckered me into believing she needed a new battery for her hearing aid. She didn't. What she did need to do was flag down the first employee she saw to ask about iPods and if she could 'download good porn to watch when I'm bored on it'. Short of dragging her out, there was very little I could do to stop her from asking a million and one questions to both me and the employee's mortification. Finally after far too long she declared 'I guess you don't have what I want' and I was left to follow as she power walked out of the store, her tracksuit swishing in her wake.

I wish I could've said that was the only thing that happened that day, but it wasn't. I thought I'd be able to avert another crisis if I took her to Macy's and let her look around for a bit, unfortunately just as I passed by Hot Topic, I felt her presence beside me not there anymore. I turned just as I saw her curly blue head disappear into the store that had music pulsating out of it that proclaimed 'I've got all night to get lucky'. I did a mental headsmack as I chased after her, hoping I could get her out before she caused too much damage. Unfortunately the small store plus an abundance of soccer mom's obviously buying their emo teenager's last minute Christmas gifts meant that it took me far too long to locate her at the counter of all places and I got there just as I heard her say 'yeah I was gonna get me one of them vajayjay piercings' but 'it's too much work to keep clean' and 'I'm all dried up down there but I don't wanna find out if I can get an infection'. The poor guy at the counter looked horrified. 

Yeah that makes two of us, bub. 

I bodily pulled her out of the place and we finally made it down to Macy's where I blessedly got her to stay for a while on the promise that I'd get her pretzel bites on the way out. I swear taking care of my grandma was like taking care of a toddler, which just reaffirmed my decision that I did not want kids. Hell, my nieces were easier to take care of than she was. 

By the time we left, I was pretty sure I'd have to visit Mr. Alexander to get all the grey hair covered up. But at least I was pretty sure that we could head to bingo now. You had to get there early to get a good spot, otherwise you had to sit in the back. This was twofold bad. In the summer, you sat next to the broken air conditioner. In the winter, you sat next to the window that had a draft that came in, no matter if it was shut or not. My plan was to get Grandma to lure Ed to us, let me get him cuffed, and I'd take him into the station while Grandma stayed behind to play a few bingo games, so I didn't plan on staying long enough to care about being stuck next to the broken window, but there was that whole Catholic guilt thing that sounded a lot like my mother that even in my head guilted me about leaving my poor grandmother alone and defenseless to freeze to death, so I was going to be the good granddaughter and get my grandmother there early enough to get her a spot away from the broken window.

As soon as we got there, Grandma and I got out and I saw Ed getting out of a car not too far away from us. Score! Maybe I could nab him before we had to go in so I could avoid being too much of the 'Burg gossip vine. "Mr. Posey..." I called out, walking over to him. 

See, here's the thing. Ed may have looked like Mickey Rooney, but apparently that was where the similarities ended. As soon as Ed saw me coming, his eyes bugged out of his head and he started trying to get back into his car. It really sucked being the Bombshell Bounty Hunter sometimes. I managed to get close and opened my mouth to give my spiel about him missing his court date when he raised his umbrella and smacked me with it. "Get away from me! I'll call the police!" 

"You're wanted for fraud, Mr. Posey!" I yelled back, trying to deflect the hits, not that it was doing much good. "If you want to call the cops, go ahead, but you'll just get arrested yourself!" 

That seemed to shake him out of his ranting and he paused in trying to hit me only to try and get back into his car. In his haste, he dropped his keys and gave me my opening. I kicked them under the car, causing him to gape at me. I was just about to grab him when he ducked down and dropped to the pavement to grab the keys. I impulsively dropped on top of him but I realized I didn't have my cuffs in my hand. I swore violently and tried to reach around to grab them without letting him go when I heard him say 'huh'. I paused in my search to stare at him, wondering what he was doing when he gave me a smile. "It hasn't worked in years, thanks! Hey, how about you forget about taking me to jail and we hop in the back seat?" 

I don't know how it happened but on second I'm on top of Ed, pinning him down; the next, I'm standing above him trying to not squirm further away. He tried to take advantage of that by grabbing his keys and opening the door, but I was not having that. I grabbed his wrist, trying to put a cuff on it, but the wiry old guy put up a hell of a fight and I was already winded and sore. It said a lot for my generation when an 85 year old had more spunk than I did. 

I was about to give up when a wrinkly old hand shot out beside me and I was barely able to recognize that Grandma had a taser in her hand and let go of Ed when she pressed the taser to him and pressed the button. He went down like a sack of potatoes and all I could do was stare in shock. 

"Huh." Grandma mumbled, looking down at him. "Would you look at that? They really do wet themselves." I was less worried about the pee than I was if he was still alive or not. Please don't let him have a pacemaker!


	13. The Fallout

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry, I promised this yesterday, but I didn't finish so I had to find time to finish it today. Well think of it as a Christmas present to you all! I hope you like it. Don't be too shocked I'm getting another chapter out so quickly. ;) I'll do my best to get another up in the next couple of days. I already have plans for it. Maybe the next two, you never know.

As I pulled into the police department I was so glad that it turned out that Ed was still alive. He woke up on the way to the police department drooling, covered in urine and spitting mad. Literally. He threw what I'm sure were obscenities at me, spittle flying from his mouth through his slurred words. I was glad to get him out at the station so I could be rid of him. The money I got from bringing him in would go a long way in soothing the frayed nerves I had from the day...so would the additional cash I grabbed from Gazarra who'd bet on me in some way on the way out, too. Bet on me, would you, I was getting so tired of that. 

Of course my happiness didn't last long. As soon as I got back in the car, I saw that Grandma (who'd ridden with me to the station instead of staying at bingo like I'd hoped she would) on the phone. I slowly got my seatbelt on trying to figure out who she was talking to when she looked up and smiled at me, clicking her dentures saucily. "Here she is, do you want to talk to her?" 

I took the phone warily and put it to my ear. 

"STEPHANIE MICHELLE PLUM!" My mother's voice screeched immediately, causing me to have to pull the phone back before I went deaf. "Just what do you think you're doing causing such a scene at the senior center?!" 

"I had to grab an FTA, mom. It was where Grandma had him meet us." I said, probably while she was taking a breath to keep being worked up and ranting. "It was all her idea, it was the only chance I had to grab him, I've been after him for days!" 

"He's an eighty five year old man and you tackled him and allowed your grandmother to tase him!" Mom said loudly, just after I stopped talking. 

"I didn't allow her to do anything, she just did it." I snapped, approaching full rhino mode. Usually I just let her rant until she got it out of her system but with the day I'd had, I wasn't in the mood to do that. "Also? I'm fine from where he whacked me repeatedly with an umbrella, thank you very much." 

"Oh Stephanie." Mom huffed, which I knew meant she thought I was overreacting. Which she never did. Oh no. I was just the most horrible daughter in the world. Which gave her the right to, repeatedly, throw all of my faults in my face."What am I going to tell people? How am I going to tell people you beat up a poor old man?" 

"He was wanted for scamming the social security." I said, rubbing my temple. "But you're going to tell people whatever you want which is just going to paint me in a bad light while painting yourself as the poor victim, so I really don't care about specifics. But while you're at it mom, here's something to drive the nail in the 'Stephanie Plum is a horrible daughter' billboard you've repeatedly thrown up. You know Vince? The guy I brought over for dinner?" 

"Why yes, he's the only saving grace about this entire thing." Mom said. 

"I'm dating him." I said, pacing myself to drop the bomb. 

"Why I know that." Mom said, as if I was stupid. It was her usual tone with me actually. 

"I'm also dating his three boyfriends Lester, Bobby, and Woody." I said, only listening long enough to hear her gasp before I snapped the phone shut and held it back out to my grandma. She took it and stuffed it back into her pocketbook as I pulled away from the station. I counted down in my head before Grandma would probably say something. Shockingly, she waited until I pulled onto the street my parents lived on before she did. 

"So, you have four studs, huh?" She asked me. 

"Yeah, Grandma." I said simply, since I was trying valiantly not to cry. 

"Good, you're doing the family name proud." She said as I pulled into the driveway. My mom was in the doorway and I purposely didn't look her way. Just before Grandma got out, she had one last comment. "I was wild myself back in my day, you know. Hell, I'm not even 100% positive who Helen's father is. All I know is I had an orgy around the time I met your grandfather and she popped out nine months later." With that she slid out and shut the door behind her as I sat there in shock for a second before I burst out laughing. My grandma may be crazy a lot of the time, but I was reminded quite often why I loved her, too. Just as I was pulling out, I saw my mom glaring at me and for some reason it just made me laugh again, which, I'm not entirely sure, but it looked like it made her screech in anger. 

Oh well, I refused to allow her to make my day even worse than it had been. Let her stew. I had my men to get back to. 

As I pulled up to Haywood, I found myself excited to get inside. After the day I'd had, I just wanted a little normalcy in my little slice of heaven. I grabbed my pocketbook and got out of the SUV, heading up in the elevator. I wasted little time going to the apartment and letting myself in. "Ok I am going to take a nice long, hot bath." I called out, not even bothering to look to see who all was there. "I'm pretty sure I could use some help, and if I can use the big tub, I might even be able to fit two of you. But you'll have to figure out who it is." As I walked to the bathroom, I heard four distinctive sets of palms smacking together, making me smirk that they were playing rock, paper, scissors to see who got to bathe with me. While I'd been at Rangeman (and more specifically with Bobby, Lester, Woody and Vince), I'd learned that, that was pretty much how all disputes were settled the 'fair' way. The other way was to get in the ring and the winner was the one who was still conscious.

By the time I got into the bathroom with my bath things, ran the water to the temperature I liked, stripped, and added my bath stuff before the door opened. I looked back and smiled when I saw Woody and Bobby there, both looking like the cat that ate the canary. 

"You know, most women would be offended if their guy played rock, paper, scissors over them." I teased as they started stripping out of their clothes. 

"Darlin', only a girl like you would have enough guys clamboring over themselves to get a chance to bathe with you, that rock, paper, scissors is necessary." Woody teased back. He looked up at me and winked and holy hell did it do good things to me. I must've said that out loud, too, because Bobby and Woody both laughed. 

"You did." Bobby confirmed as he got in the tub with me and pulled me to rest against his chest. I closed my eyes and sank back into him as Woody got in as well, sitting close to Bobby so he could pull my leg over his lap. He grabbed my foot and started rubbing it, making me moan. Bobby put his large hands on my shoulders and started rubbing, making me feel lucky that I had not one, but two, gorgeous men right there to take care of me. "You're awful tense, Bomber, what has you so wound up?" 

"Day from hell, haven't you gotten the news from the 'vine yet?" I cracked, not opening my eyes. 

"We've all been in the office, darlin', why?" Woody asked, a frown coming through his tone.

I sighed, knowing none of them would let me get out of it, so I just tipped my head back and called for Lester and Vince. When they walked in, I saw that Lester was shirtless, still in his work pants. Which meant he was either baking or he was about to actually change into something more comfortable. I hoped it was the latter, I could use sugar. 

"What's up, Steph?" Vince asked me, as he sat on the closed toilet lid while Lester just leaned against the doorjamb.

"Well I thought I'd tell you about my day, all at once, since you'll find out about it anyway." I said, tapping my fingers nervously againt Bobby's thighs. Lester caught the gesture and sat beside the bathtub. He grabbed my hand in both of his and gave it a little squeeze of support. I took a deep breath and started telling them about my day, only backing up enough to tell how I'd been going after Ed for a couple days now and finally had to bring Grandma into the plan, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to catch Ed. 

"Why didn't you ask one of us to help you get the guy, Beautiful?" Lester interrupted when I paused the story. 

"Because he's freakin' 85." I blurted out. "I felt humiliated that I looked all over Trenton and couldn't believe that I couldn't find one little old man. After a while it became personal."

"Been there." Lester cracked. 

"Done that." Bobby finished, his large hands going back to massaging my shoulders. 

"Good, so you understand." I said, looking around at them. 

"Course, darlin', so what happened?" Woody asked, getting me back on track. 

"Oh, well, I got grandma to call him and she got him to agree to meet her at bingo at the senior center." I said, going on with the story. "So we pull up and guess who freakin' pulls up just a few spaces away?" 

"Ed." Bobby guessed, causing me to nod my head quickly.

"Ed!" I exclaimed. "I couldn't believe my luck. I was so happy. Well, I got out and I almost got up to him when he looked up and saw me. I guess he recognized me and he told me to get away from him. Then he started hitting me with his umbrella." 

"Is that where you got your bruises?" Lester asked. 

"Yeah, wait, what..." I looked down at myself and realized, with a gasp, that I looked like a domestic abuse victim. 

"I didn't even notice them." Bobby said, a clear frown in his voice as he gently raised my arm and raised it, to inspect it. 

"Tell us the rest while he looks you over." Vince prompted. 

"Ok so he tried to get back into his car, but I smacked his keys away." I said. "So he goes down to get them and I drop on top of him. He made a comment about he hadn't been able to get it up in a while and I think he propositioned me. I was too busy being creeped out to notice." I shuddered and felt Woody pick up my foot, rubbing it. I sighed in contentment and took a few seconds to enjoy it before I went back to the story. "After that, he tried to grab his keys and get in the car so I grabbed him and tried to get my cuffs so I could put them on him. Well he almost got the better of me, but Grandma..." 

"Uh oh." Lester cracked. 

"She zapped him with her taser." I muttered just clear enough for them to understand me.

"Oh my God." Woody blurted out, and I could feel Bobby shaking with laughter under me. I shifted just enough to brush up against his crotch, and I heard him choke on his laughs, which made me smirk, and I went back to my story. 

"We took him to the station and I came out and saw my grandma on the phone." I sighed and sank back more into Bobby who seemed to understand what I needed and he wrapped his arms around my waist firmly. "I got in and it was my mother. All she could do was scream at me about how I beat up an eighty five year old man and how I 'let' my grandma tase him." 

"As if your granny waits for people to 'allow' her to do anything." Lester blurted out. 

"Exactly." I huffed a little, before getting a little sheepish. "Um..." 

"What is it, baby?" Vince murmured in a way that made my insides turn to mush. I blurted it out before I could stop myself. 

"I told her we all were together." When I realized what I said, I attempted to slouch down but the limited space in the tub didn't allow me to. 

I looked up when I heard Lester laugh. "Boy, I bet she about had a conniption over that." 

"I don't know." I said honestly. "I dropped Grandma off and she was at the door, obviously waiting, probably hoping I'd come in so she could scream at me some more, but I just pulled out of the drive and came back here."

"Well you're here now." Bobby murmured, giving me a little squeeze. We'll finish our bath, and I'll put some balm on those bruises, after I break a few of them up and give you something for the pain. Then we'll fix you something to eat, with dessert, and plop you down with a movie." 

"You're going to do what with my bruises?" I asked dumbly. 

A little while later, I found out exactly what Bobby meant. 

It hurt like hell. 

He promised me that it was better and would keep the bruise from getting too bad, but I swer it felt like I was getting tortured as he was doing it. I was never more happy than when he gave me some extra-strength Advil and Vince cuddled up to me, handing me a plate of lasagna that lookd homemade. It didn't even have whole wheat noodles. Lester put on the first disc of Arrow (a show he swore I should get into) and I settled in for hopefully a better end to my night than the start of my day had been.


	14. Babysitting

Shockingly, after my bombshell, my mom didn't blow up my phone with messages. I wasn't sure if that relieved me, or worried me; I'd definitely been expecting it. But I was at least happy that I was able to focus on other things than the fact that I was a big disappointment to my mother (again!) and would probably never win her approval as long as I was true to myself, which, let's face it, I was too stubborn and strong-willed, with an indepent spirit to really ever be any other way. Being with my boys helped me see that, that wasn't a bad thing and I think I was coming to terms with being more comfortable with myself and who I was, which I thought that since I was the age I was, it was about time. 

I kept up with the skills I had initially learned from the guys and not only did I go to the gun range almost every day, I kept up with my self-defense training, and I found a program at the local community center, the Les Miller program, which was like working out but fun, and I did that several times a week. The guys were shocked, but pleased, that I was doing something fitness-wise. I even had a (somehwat) flat stomach now, which was amazing to me! 

I'd just finished bringing a skip in when I got a call. I looked at the caller-ID as I got into my car and was a little wary when I noticed it was my sister, Val. We hadn't really talked in a while and since she was usually my mom's clone, I was a little afraid my mom had gotten to her and asked her to try and get me to 'see to reason' or whatever other hairbrained thing my mom would probably say. I answered on edge, ready to hang up if I needed to. "Hi, Val. What's up?" 

"Steph, hey." Val said in a tone that didn't seem like there was an ulterior motive, but she might just be a better actress than I ever thought she was. "I'm so glad I caught you." There was a note of exasperation in her tone, which worried me, but I was trying to not worry before she gave me a reason to. "I have a favor to ask." 

I pulled my cell away from my ear and looked at it weirdly. There was no reason she hadn't talked to mom, so I knew she had to know about what I told her. There was no way mom had kept that little fact to herself. 

"I know what you're thinking." Val said as I put the phone back to my ear. "Why am I still talking to you and not shunning you, right? Well, I talked to mom, and she told me what you told her...I don't care. It's your life and if you're happy and it's not hurting anyone, then I'm not going to judge you." 

"Wow." I blurted out, a little shocked that, that was her stance on things. 

"What? It's true." Val said. "I may get along well better with mom than you ever have, but that doesn't mean I agree with everything she says. I told her as much, too. She huffed and hung up on me." 

"Oh Val." I groaned. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to come in between you two." 

"Stephanie, you didn't!" Val exclaimed, sounding shocked I even thought that. "If anything mom's arrogance did. She thinks that just because she says 'jump' everyone should say 'how high'. She cares too much about what the 'Burg thinks about anything and not enough about what the wellbeing of her family is. It's sad, but I refuse to care more than to acknowledge that it sucks that I have a mother who's like that, who will never truly love her family unconditionally." 

"Wow, I..." I didn't know what to say. 

"Enough about her." Val said dismissively. "I called you for a reason. The favor I have to ask of you." 

"Oh yeah, that." I said. "Well what is it?" 

"You see, ever since we got them back, Mary Alice and Angie have had some issues..." Val trailed off. 

"What kind of issues?" I prompted once it was obvious she wasn't going to jump back into talking without it. 

"Mostly nightmares." Val said. "But they...they're very shy, hesitant about...everything. Every little noise makes them jump, every stranger that approaches us, they hide away. It's very...hard to see, Steph. I don't know what to do." 

Hell. I didn't know what to do either. But the pain and tears in my sister's voice was tugging at my heart and the knowledge that my nieces were going through what they were made me want to help anyway that I could. "Give me...fifteen minutes." I said, glancing at the clock. "I'll call you back." 

"Alright, thank you, Steph." She said, sounding so grateful that I was going to help in some way, that it made me even more determined to help. 

After I hung up with her, I took a deep breath and thought over my options. When I didn't like any of them, I pulled my cell back out and dialed Lester's number. Out of all the guys, I was closest to him, as we'd gotten closer earlier, and I knew even just using him as a sounding board would help a lot. "What's up, Beautiful?" He answered after a couple of rings.

"Hey, Les, are you back home?" I asked, the word coming out of my mouth easily. It was home for me, I definitely felt that way. It was, in a lot of ways, more home than my apartment had ever been. 

"I sure am, the guys are here, too." He told me. "We were just about to start dinner plans. Are you on your way." 

"Actually..." I trailed off. "Can you put me on speaker?" 

"Hold." He said, before he took a second to speak again. "Alright, we're all here. What's up?" 

"My sister called me." I started off. "She said ever since we got Mary Alice and Angie back..." I rattled off what Val had told me verbatim pretty much, my mind still going through options of what I could do help in some way. "She wants my help, but...I have to admit that I have no idea what to do." 

I heard the four guys discussing stuff, but either someone had a hand over the speaker, or were holding the phone so far away that I couldn't hear. Either way, it irritated me and just as I was about to scream, I heard Bobby's voice. 

"Steph." He said, letting me know he was there. "Bring 'em here." 

"What?" I asked, looking at the phone in shock for the second time that day. "What do you mean 'bring 'em here'?" 

"Just what I said." Bobby laughed. "Look, we have some ideas we think would be beneficial and we think giving them a break from a place that is vulnerable and bringing them to a place where they can let their defenses down and relax a little will also be a huge help. Since it's Friday, ask your sister if you can take them for the weekend and drop them off back home Sunday afternoon. That will give us a little more than a day to do some stuff to help. It may not be a long lasting solution, but it will give us a chance to start and work out something and hopefully Val will let us work on it when we can." 

I was very curious to what they had in mind, but something told me that I wouldn't be told right then, so I let it go for right then. "Ok, I'll call Val back and run it by her." I said my goodbyes and called Val back. "Val, hey, I have a question. Could I keep them this weekend? I think I could at least start on trying to help and if it looks like it'll help, we can maybe keep working on it when we can." 

"Oh, Steph, that would be great!" Val said enthusiastically. "Thank you so much! You have no idea how much I appreciate this. I'll have them ready to go when you get here." 

I looked at the back seat and was glad I had driven a Rangeman SUV. "Alright, I'll be there soon." I hung up and prayed that this wouldn't come back to bite me in the ass later on. I put that thought aside as I drove off to my sister's, glad that it seemed to be a sign of sorts that I didn't run into any red lights along the way. As I pulled up to the curb, I saw Val coming out. I was momentarily stunned when I saw her coming out not only with Mary Alice, Angie and their bags, but also with Lisa and Maggie and the insane amount of things babies seemed to need, which apparently included a portable crib. When she opened the back door of my SUV, I snapped out of my stupor and got out to try and help however I could. "I didn't realize I was keeping Lisa and Maggie as well." 

"I figured Albert and I could use this as a mini-vacation." Val said, reminding me that, even though we had a bonding moment earlier, she had a lot of mom's same qualities that drove me up the wall. "I mean...it's been so long since he and I have had time alone just to enjoy one another..." 

I held in a groan and decided to stop the guilt trip (and subsequently keep her from damaging the shaky bond we established earlier) and cut her off before she could go on. "I swear if you get knocked up again, I'll drag you to the hospital to getyour tubes tied myself." 

She laughed and pulled me into a hug. "Oh, Steph, I took care of that after Maggie was born." She hugged me tightly and whispered in my ear. "Thank you, I really appreciate this." 

I kept the comment about 'which part?' that wanted to come out of my mouth to myself as I hugged her back. "Sure, you're my sister." I said simply. "They're my nieces." 

Once we had everything in the SUV (which took a lot of tactical planning on our parts), I said my goodbyes and got in. Mary Alice had her Gameboy out, playing a game on it, and Angie was reading a book (it looked like a Harry Potter-type fantasy book, which I wouldn't have expected her to be a fan of) so I had to hope that the babies would be ok long enough for me to get to Haywood. Thankfully, my nieces, the ones who could talk anyway, weren't big on having to fill silences so I was free to take out my blue tooth and call home as I drove (it was a hands free device, no judgments!). 

"Hello, Beautiful." Lester said suavely, causing me to smile instinctively. 

"Hey, Les, uh...my sister threw me a curveball." I admitted. "Is there a way someone could help me when I get there? I'm about twenty minutes out." 

"What's the curveball?" Lester asked, sounding a little wary. 

"I have all my nieces." I said, knowing he'd get the meaning of that.

Lester paused, but I had to give him credit that he didn't sound rattled when he spoke. "Ok, we'll be there to help." Somehow I thought his words had double meaning to them, but I couldn't figure it out right then as we said our goodbyes and hung up. 

"So, Angie, what are you reading?" I asked, just to let them know I wasn't ignoring them either. 

"It's called Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare." Angie answered succinctly as she looked up toward me. It's about a girl named Clary who finds out she's a Shadowhunter, which is someone who's job is to rid the Earth of demons." 

"That sounds really cool." I said, as it sounded like something I'd read, as opposed to my pre-teen niece. 

"It is so far." Angie smiled at me briefly. "The movie just came out, and it looks really good. Everyone at school is talking about it, so I thought I'd read the book so I can talk about it, too." 

I bit my lip at that. It was such a mom and Val thing to say, but I knew my impressionable little niece was just trying to find a way to be accepted, which I couldn't blame her for. She would just have to learn on her own that it didn't matter what random people thought of you, you'd find people who would accept you for who you were. 

I pulled into Rangeman, and had to smile at seeing my boys there. They all looked like they were ready and willing to help, and I was glad for that. I pulled into a space close to the elevator and shut the SUV off, looking in the backseat. "Ok, don't worry too much about the guys, ok?" 

"Are these your boyfriends?" Mary Alice asked me, taking me off guard. She must've saw the shock on my face, since she went on. "Mama told us that you had more than one boyfriend and that was ok because you weren't hurting anyone and God knows you need more than one so just one man didn't have to put up with your crazy life alone." 

That settled it, I was going to dig back to our childhood and forcibly feed Val a mud pie. "Yes, they are. The big guy is Bobby, Vince you met, the guy with spiky hair is Lester and the other guy is Woody." 

"Alright. We'll remember, it'll be nice to meet them." Angie piped up, cutting off whatever Mary Alice was about to say. I hate to say it, but I was sort of glad for it at that moment, even though I knew tht if I'd been Mary Alice's age, I'd have been irritated to be cut off like that. I sent her a smile just to let her know I understood and it was ok before I opened my and got out. 

"So how are we going to play this?" Vince asked me. "I mean we do live together..." 

"Oh they know we're together." I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that they looked shocked (if only briefly) as they thought that over. "They know you're my boyfriends. Apparently Val told them I 'need more than one so just one man didn't have to put up with my crazy life alone'. 

I shot them looks as I saw them try to hide the snickers that wanted to burst out. "Shush, if you know what's good for you." 

Thankfully they did just that and I saw that Lester's suaveness that won over many girls also worked on female children as he immediately won over Mary Alice and Angie and he led them to the elevator while Woody followed, helping carry some of the bags. I quickly grabbed some of the stuff left for my younger nieces so I didn't have to worry about trying to figure out how to get out the car seats. I looked over and saw Bobby give me a grin as he got half in the back to grab the rest of the bags, while Vince almost expertly got the car seats out, cooing over my younger nieces as he did so. Damn, didn't he realize that did things to me?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had a thought that I wanted to let you guys know who I pictured for the characters. I have to admit, when she was cast, I was firmly against Katherine Heigl as Stephanie, but after seeing it, she's who I picture. She may not have been perfect attitude wise, or even acting wise, but physically, she's who's in my head. Grandma Mazur is very, very hard. I originally pictured Estelle Getty. While I love Debbie Reynolds, I wasn't sure she was perfect in the role. I think the closest I could really ever picture would be Yetta from The Nanny, or Betty White. Lester is very hard for me to really give a face to as well, because the image in my head isn't exactly a specific celebrity. Kellan Lutz could pull off the attitude I think, the cocky, arrogant but loveable ladies man. Plus he definitely has the body. If not him, Erik Rhodes is acceptable to me, too. Vince, in my head, is Giovanni Roselli. Without a doubt, he's pretty much exactly what I always have pictured. Woody is John Cena. If you can find pictures of him from The Reunion, that's pretty much Woody in my head. Bobby is either Big E. Langston, or Boris Kodjoe. Mostly Big E. I picture as Bobby as a big, muscular type of guy. Lula, definitely, is Monique pre-weight loss. She's just...in my opinion perfect. I liked Sherri, but Lula's bigger in my head. If not Monique, then Latrice Royale (who I know is a drag queen but looks and attitude wise, shes perfect). Val is the girl who plays Tara in the show Sons of Anarchy. Albert is the guy who played Jim's best friend in According to Jim. Connie is Katey Segal circa her Married With Children days. Vinnie is...well to be honest I always pictured Danny Devito. I guess I always overlooked that he was described as looking like a ferret. Oops. Ok I think that's all the important people. Well, except Stephanie's mom, which is very hard. I liked who played her in the movie, but if I had to really pick someone else, I'd probably pick Vicki Lawrence. I think she could be fun. Oh also Tank in my head is Michael Clarke Duncan. If not him, maybe Idris Elba. Ranger, not that he has much presence in the story, is Antonio Banderas from Don't Talk to Strangers. He fits my image so very well. I don't picture Ranger as big and muscular, but in shape and badass looking. Just to round out everyone even featured in the story, Stephanie's dad is Mike O'Malley, just because I think he could absolutely fit the mold, even if he's probably closer to Katherine Heigl's age than old enough to be her dad. Stephanie's nieces, I can't give you celebs to have as a reference, because I picture my cousins, especially their personalities. I will say I see Angie as prim and proper, and Mary Alice as a tomboy through and through. I picture them physically....Angie as tall, thin, long hair that's meticulously brushed out. Mary Alice I see as shorter, a little rounder, some baby fat still, but definitely not overweight, a little bob cut hairdo.


	15. Unexpected Visitor

It didn't take long for my nieces to settle in after we brought them up. Thankfully Bobby had time to reconsider the dinner he was going to make that night and instead made us a nice chicken stew. Even Mary Alice and Angie loved it and scarfed it down. After that, it was really too late to get into anything, so Vince popped in Penelope (a movie the girl's brought with them) and he and Lester got Maggie and Lisa ready for bed. Probably they did that because they didn't have to watch the story about a woman who had a pig's nose, but I wasn't complaining.

"So how is it you're so good with babies?" I asked Lester after he and Vince came back from putting the babies down.

Lester laughed quietly and wrapped his arm around me. "You forget, Ranger has a kid." He pointed out. "Plus we have a big family. Between his family, and mine, there are a lot of kids. I've been around babies for the better part of ten years or so."

"Well if I was ever willing to revisit my stance on having some of my own, I'd say watching you and Vince gave me urges." I teased as I leaned into his side, sliding my feet under Bobby's thigh. 

Lester smirked and put his mouth at my ear. "Well even if you don't want kids, I bet we can have a lot of fun trying."

I shivered at that and silently hoped the weekend passed quickly beccause I had a feeling being celibate for 24 hours wasn't going to be fun.

The next day, Lester made us waffles and French toast, which made me wonder just how hard they were going to have to work to work off all the calories, but Mary Alice and Angie sure loved him for it.

I caught Lester's eye as we were eating and he gave me a small smirk. It took me a second but I realized that he made the sugary breakfast for me, because he knew that when I was going through a dry spell, I turned to sweets to curb my urges. I sent him a small glare and his smirk turned into a full blown smile. If I had been sitting in the right spot, I would've kicked him.

After breakfast, we all showered and changed into casual clothes and I followed the guys as we went down to the gym (which was suspiciously empty) Mary Alice, Angie and the babies in tow. I reluctantly took Maggie and Lisa and went over to the side with Woody, letting the babies play on a blanket while Lester, Bobby, and Vince took Mary Alice and Angie over to the mats where the guys sparred. 

"We heard that you two were feeling a little unsafe and scared after what you went through." Bobby said as he dropped to his knees to be more level with the girls, even though he obviously wasn't talking down to them, which they probably appreciated. 

The girls looked at each other before Mary Alice spoke up for them. "Yeah, we don't want to get took again." 

"Well we thougth we could teach you some stuff that, if that happens, you'll be able to get away." Bobby gave them a small smile. 

Mary Alice snorted which made me crack a small grin and I saw Lester fighting one himself. "How're we supposed to get away from someone as big as you?" She asked bluntly, which was a pretty good question, I have to say, and I was proud of her for it. 

"It's not about how big you are." Bobby laughed a little. "It's about how smart you are and how you use the other person's body against them. If you make it so that they can't go after you, then you'll be ok. You just have to do just the right thing." 

"And you'll teach us?" Angie asked, finally finding her voice. I was a little worried about how she'd be able to do this, I have to say. She was the quiet, shy, prim and proper type and I had horrific visions of her just letting some guy beat the crap out of her without doing anything about it. I hoped that wasn't the case though.

"Yeah, of course." Bobby said. "It won't be easy and we're hoping your mom will let you come back past today, but we'll do what we can today and go from there. Also you could see if your mom would enroll you in karate or something. That would probably go a long way in helping, too." 

They got started after that and the guys took my nieces through their paces. I had to admit, watching them, I was impressed. Mary Alice seemed to be throwing herself right into it with the enthusiasm she'd need to get through it, which was a lot like how I tried to be with certain things. Angie seemed to be struggling a bit, which was a little disheartening, but, it seemed like she was at least determined not to give up, which gave me hope that while she may not pick it up as easily as her sister, she'd pick it up eventually. Maybe I would talk to Val about Bobby's suggestion of enrolling them in karate. I could see where it would help. 

Sometime later, I was so into watching the guys work with my nieces, I almost missed the tingle on the back of my neck. Woody had gone over to help, so I was sitting with Lisa and Maggie by myself. I looked over and saw Ranger sitting there with Lisa in his arms, a small smile on his face. "It's about time you noticed me." He teased, kissing Lisa's hand as she tried to reach up and grab at his lip. 

"How long have you been there?" I asked, startled. 

"About five minutes." He shrugged as he leaned back and settled Lisa on his lap. He gestured to the others with his head. "They seem to be doing pretty well." 

"Yeah, I'm impressed." I admitted. "I thought for sure this wouldn't be for them." I smiled as I watched Mary Alice land a kick to the bag Woody was holding up to her. He complimented her with a smile and she beamed, obviously proud of herself. 

"You think she'll take over the mantle of Bombshell Bounty Hunter?" Ranger asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I laughed out loud at that. "I doubt it. I think her mom would have a conniption, not to mention my mom would have a heart attack."

"I bet she probably wouldn't care, just like her aunt." He said quietly, almost in a knowing tone. 

"Well, maybe at least hide it." I said, which was a little more telling than I meant to be, but I couldn't exactly take it back now. 

"So which one is it?" He asked, making me almost drop Maggie who'd crawled over to climb onto my lap. 

"What?" I asked, barely managing to not shriek it. "What...what do you..." 

"Ahh." He said, as he studied me, which made me feel vulnerable in ways only Ranger was really capable of. "Do they make you happy?" 

"Yeah, happier than I've ever been?" I ducked my head, feeling my face heat up. 

"That's enough for you?" He asked. "You can't get married that way, have kids...it's not exactly a normal situation." 

I rolled my eyes. "Who exactly ever said I wanted to be normal?" I asked with more than a little sass in my voice. "Because I'm fairly positive that it wasn't me. I'm also sure I never said I wanted to get married again, or have kids." 

Ranger held his hands up in surrender, a small smile on his face. "Alright, alright. I get it. Assuming sure does make an ass out of, well me at least." He chucked. "I had to make sure though. When Tank told me..." 

"You and Tank are worse than my mother and the gossiping bitties she calls friends." I interrupted. 

"...I had to make sure it wasn't something you were going along with just because you felt like you didn't have a better option." Ranger continued as if I hadn't said anything.

"Which you should know better about." I pointed out. 

"I can see you're happy." He said quietly. "I saw how you trained, learned all those skills. I was told you even carry your gun now." 

"Most of the time." I muttered. "I obviously don't have it on me now." 

"Probably for the best." Ranger laughed quietly. He lifted Lisa up above his head, making her giggle wildly for a few seconds. "This little one has repeatedly grabbed for the weapons I have on me while we've been sitting here." 

"Remember, Ranger, we women like to keep men on their toes." I couldn't help but tease.

He laughed at that and gave Lisa to me before standing. "So why don't you guys show me what you've been doing with the girls so far." 

"This." Mary Alice said, and before anyone could stop her, she reared her fist back and hit Ranger as hard as she could in the stomach. My jaw dropped, horrified as he let out a grunt and bent forward a little. Lester, however, thought the entire thing was hilarious and fell over laughing hysterically. 

Well, to be fair, he did request they show him what they learned, right? 

A little while later, after the guys took the girls to clean up and to have lunch, I stood there with Ranger just outside the gym. "I'm sorry Mary Alice hit you." I muttered, still not over it. 

"I'm not." He said simply. 

"You're not?" I asked, a little shocked. 

"Absolutely not." He shook his head. "I'm damn proud of her. There was no hesitation whatsoever, she just reacted and did what came naturally to her." He smirked a little. "Plus it was a damn good hit. I think she actually managed to bruise me." He lifted his shirt and I did in fact see his skin darkening a little. "Huh." He mumbled. 

"What?" I looked back up at his face. 

"I just thought I'd see what you'd do, because normally you'd have been drooling at me like I was a piece of meat." He said as he dropped his shirt back down. "I guess you really are happy with them." 

"I did tell you so." I pointed out. 

"You did." He said. "I'm going to be here for a couple days, meetings, and such. If you need me for anything..." 

"I'll let you know." I promised quietly. 

"Good." He said quietly, leaning toward me. I panicked briefly, thinking he was going to try and kiss me, but he just pecked my forehead before walking off. 

It seemed like there was a change to our relationship, and so far it seemed like a good thing.


	16. Twenty Four Hours Of Celibacy Are Up

I loved my nieces but I had to say I was glad to be taking them back home that Sunday. I really never thought of myself as as sex addict, in fact I rolled my eyes when anyone talked about 'needing to get laid'. But being with the guys changed something in me and on the way my thoughts turned to naughty fantasies of starring in my own version of Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, but with less singing, no marriage and only one 'bride'...me. 

"Aunt Steph, you're goin' awful fast." Mary Alice broke through my thoughts. 

I looked at the speedometer and realized I was going about 10 miles over the speed limit. Oops. I backed off, thankful that there didn't seem to be any cops or traffic and gave a smile in the rearview mirror. "Sorry, I have a need..." I figured they wouldn't get the reference to the Tom Cruise movie, but I had to say something. 

Angie leaned over toward Mary Alice and I pretended not to listen in as I drove. "Aunt Stephanie probably just wants to get back to her boyfriends." I had to hold in a laugh when Mary Alice made a face. My poor youngest niece wasn't in 'boy phase' yet. Unlike her older sister who I saw eyeing my guys more than once, especially when they had their shirts off. Who could blame her? I ogled, too. 

I pulled up to Val's house and I got out, grabbing the baby carriers (Vince had showed me how to take them out and put them in), and juggled those, the portable crib and baby's bags while Mary Alice and Angie carried their own (thankfully) and knocked for me. 

After saying goodbye to my nieces, I got back into my SUV and headed back to Rangeman. On the way I noticed an Escalade following me and it made me uncomfortable, but I forced myself to calm down and think about what I should do. First thing's first, try to lose them. With that plan of attack in mind, I started weaving in and out of traffic, keeping a watch on the Escalade in the mirror. It seemed to be falling back, but I still had it in my sights and as I was told repeatedly, only let your guard down when there's no threat (I had a sneaking suspicion that the guys never applied this to themselves though), so I made a few last minute turns. 

As it was, the person following me wasn't as good a driver as I was getting to be, so after a few twists and turns (one inspiring move leading me to head through the parking lot of a strip mall through to the parking lot of the Best Buy beside it and through to the back exit of that parking lot before going through to a red light that, if you weren't experienced with being there would take you forever to get past) I didn't see them in my rearview mirror. I was proud of myself. 

I was close to the bonds office and I knew that Connie usually worked until four so I decided to pop over and see if she had anything for me. 

As I walked in, it seemed like Vinnie wasn't there, which I was relieved about. "He's with Lucille." Connie said from her desk as she was painting her nails a shade I recognized as Dirty Diana Dusty Rose from a line of nail polish starting up in a small kiosk in the mall called XXXtreme. Lula liked it because of the risque company name, I liked it because of the inventive color names and the fact that it seemed to set hard and wouldn't crack too easily, Connie just liked the colors themselves. 

"Good." I sighed as I flopped down onto the ugly green formica couch we had in the office. It reminded me of if Slimer was a couch. "I just got through with a high speed chase, I don't need flack from my rat bastard cousin." 

"Who was chasing you this time?" It said a lot about what happened in my life that Connie sounded so blase about it. Or did it say a lot that my friends didn't get upset when I said I had a crazy after me? I decided to not go down that avenue too far. It would only make me feel bad. As it was, I was in desperate need of Ben & Jerry's...and the other guys in my life, that would help a lot. 

"I don't know." I admitted, throwing my arm over my face. "All I saw was that it was an imperial blue Escalade. The windows were tinted, as much as Jersey allows them to be anyway." 

"I don't like the sound of that." Connie looked up at me from painting her last nail. 

"I'll tell the guys when I get back." I promised, just to set her at ease. "But I came here to see if you had any files for me." 

She gestured to a stack, which I grabbed. "Ones turned sideways on bottom are Rangeman." 

I noticed there was a healthy stack of those. "There a lot of high level skipping going on these days?" I tried to be nosy without it being too obvious. 

"Yeah, Trenton blew up pretty much over night." Connie rolled her eyes. "Every Tom, Dick and Harry's got their finger in Trenton's pies these days. All the drug pushers, human traffickers and miscellaneous douchebags are passing through the city." 

"Wow." I mumbled, a little freaked out. "Well it's good that we have Rangeman to take care of it." 

Connie shrugged. "At some point or another the Family would take care of it. They don't take kindly to people nosing around their territory. A few pointed deaths and the idiots would get the hint and move on."

Here's the thing. I knew Connie had Family. Capital F, as in the mob. Sometimes it was like woah I know somebody who has ties to the mob. That's really crazy. But on the flipside, I really felt good that Connie and I were good enough friends that I could get her to use her connections if I really needed to. But I doubt I ever would. I just didn't like the thought of asking someone to ask her Family to kill for me. Of course, Ranger had killed for me, but that was different, I didn't ask him to do it. "So..." I decided to get away from this train of thought. "What are my files?" 

"Dylan Hoechlin, wanted for armed robbery...except what he was armed with was a banana; Oliver Smoak, wanted for urinating in public and groping a female officer; Tyler O'Brien, wanted for having pot and assorted drug paraphernalia on him when he got pulled over for speeding; and Roy Queen, he roided up at the gym and unleashed the beast all over it, caused $500,000 in damages and put two people in the hospital." 

"Awesome." I cracked. I'd get one of the guys to help me with that one. 

"Hey, the bonds are pretty awesome." Connie pointed out the bright side. "You'll have a serious shoe stash to tuck away after you bring them in." 

I was just about to agree when I saw the Escalade from earlier. A guy who looked like he belonged as an extra in Goodfellas got out and I watched as he took out a rocket launcher. I had just enough time to tell Connie to hit the deck before he aimed it at my SUV and fired.


	17. Aftermath

When I woke up, I noticed a lot of things going on at once. First, I was in a smoking building, with not a lot of fresh air to breathe; second of all it was noisy, with sirens and activity, and people talking loudly and frantically; third, I was laying on a thigh I really hoped was someone who wouldn't make things awkward when they noticed I was awake. I peeked an eye open and saw that it was Lester, and I relaxed, watching as he talked to Bobby, who was setting up a portable oxygen machine. When Bobby bent to put it on me, he noticed I was awake and smiled. "How're you doing, Steph?" He asked gently. 

"What happened?" I rasped out, as he put the cannula in my nose. 

"Well from what we managed to get from Connie and Lula you came here talking about how you got rid of a tail and then all of a sudden you said to hit the deck and there was a loud explosion that knocked all of you out." Lester said, running his fingers through my hair. I winced when he hit a certain spot and managed to shake loose some broken glass. 

"Oh yeah." I mumbled. "I remember that. It was blue. Like...like that liquor bottle. A dark, kinda shiny blue. And the guy that got out had a rocket launcher and he aimed it at my SUV. He looked like he belonged in Goodfellas. Black hair all greased back, Italian features, kinda...weathered. Couldn't have been more than 40, but looked like he'd lived life hard. Ride or die." 

Bobby quirked a smile and patted my arm. "Good job with the details, even though I know it had to happen quick. Let me pop out and tell the cops." 

"Please tell me Morelli's not here." I groaned, looking up at Lester as Bobby walked off. 

Lester grinned. "He's not, don't worry. Apparently he tried to get you thrown in jail for the incident at the restaurant and when the real story got out, a restraining order got put on him on your behalf. He can't come within 500 feet of you, which includes crime scenes." 

"Thank God." I was too relieved to go into rhino mode about the restraining order. It was only a good thing for me anyway. Who was I anyway? I'd become a lot more relaxed about things lately. Maybe it was all the good sex I'd been having. My eyes flashed up to see if I'd said that out loud, but Lester seemed to be watching outside, and if he'd heard, he'd definitely have something to say about it. "So when can I go home?" 

Lester looked like he was about to argue with me, but he tamped it down. "As soon as Bobby's confident you don't have bad smoke inhalation. You need some stitches and a good bathing, but we can handle all of that back there." 

I nodded and grabbed Lester's hand, playing with his fingers. "Les...do you think this has to do with the Soloman's?" 

Lester sighed. "I can't lie, Beautiful, it very well could have some ties to it. I mean...maybe it's not. Maybe it's one of the skips you took in wanting revenge, or a family member or friend. Right now we can't rule anyone out." 

That made me remember something. "Damn, I have files, are they..." 

"Right here." Lester chuckled, holding them up. "They're fine, don't worry. Focus on you." 

"Alright." I settled down again, focusing on breathing and letting the oxygen do its thing. 

After a while, Bobby pronounced me ok enough to leave, and he and Lester took me back to Haywood to our apartment. I smiled as we walked in, seeing Woody feeding Rex a few baby carrots. When he heard us come in, he walked over and cupped my face. "You alright there, Darlin'?" He asked worriedly. 

"Nothing I won't bounce back from." I soothed, putting my hand over his. 

"I need to stitch her up." Bobby said. "And we need to monitor her for a concussion. But I think she'll be just fine." 

"Good." Woody kissed my forehead and let Bobby and Lester fuss over me. Once I had a shower (which felt glorious, even if I couldn't get Lester, who was helping me, to engage in anything fun), and Bobby had given me stitches (only three and he numbed the area before he started), I sat on the couch, snuggled up with Woody and Bobby and ate some of the stew Lester had promised me a while back he'd make for me sometime. Apparently almost getting killed made tonight that time. I wasn't complaining, it was yummy and it was comfort food...albeit comfort food I had never experienced before. I even got a small pint of Turtle Track ice cream for dessert. Talk about being spoiled...or maybe they were making sure my libido didn't get out of control before I could heal. 

Damn smart men.

After I ate, I was too tired to even want to get up to anything fun anyway. Bobby helped me up and walked me to the bedroom, tucking me into bed. He kissed my forehead and just as I was drifting off to sleep, he dropped the bomb on me that he'd be waking me up every two hours to make sure I didn't have a concussion. 

Damn. 

The next morning, I was still feeling like I was run over by a mack truck, so I got up, made myself breakfast and went down to do some light cardio in the gym. I didn't really want to, but I didn't want to get into any lazy habits either. I went to the gun range and worked on the targets for a while before I felt run down and went back upstairs. I took a nap and woke up to the smell of someone making lunch. I walked into the room and saw Bobby sitting at the island while Woody was making some grilled cheese sandwiches. Woody smiled at me and gestured. When I nodded that yes, I did want a sandwich or two, he opened the bread again and set about making them up. I sat beside Bobby who hugged me to him and kissed me. "How're you doing, baby?" He murmured. 

"I feel run down and sore." I said honestly. "Tired as hell from getting up every two hours." I gave him a playful glare, which he laughed at. 

"Hey, we found the SUV." He said, turning serious. "It was abandoned." 

"Figures." I muttered, trying to not get discouraged. 

"Tell her the other stuff." Woody instructed, waving the spatula at Bobby. 

Bobby made a face and rubbed my arm. "The plates were still on it and we figured they were fake ones, or temporaries." 

"Were they?" I asked, raising my eyebrows when he paused. 

"No." He admitted. "They were traced to Michael Soloman." 

"Shit." I blurted out, running a hand through my hair. "What's that mean?" 

"I think it was a...threat." Bobby said as gently as he could. "I think he was sending a message to you." 

I put my head on Bobby's shoulder and let out a sound between a groan and a frustrated shriek. "Why is it always me that attracts the ones that want revenge?" 

"Could be a number of things, Darlin'." Woody said, not recognizing the question as rhetorical...or maybe he just didn't care. "Could be that they're guys and don't like the idea that some tiny girl put them in jail." I shot him a bitchy look and he turned away as he plated the sandwiches. "Could be that you just have dumb luck and get the ones with the screws loose." 

"You guys get the high bond ones." I practically whined. 

Bobby chuckled and squeezed me to him. "I know, sweetheart, but that doesn't mean we get the mentally unstable ones, and you don't. It doesn't work that way." 

"Is there a way for me to not get the mentally unstable ones?" I asked hopefully. 

"I'm pretty sure there's not." He said gently. 

"Well damn." I grumbled. 

After lunch, Woody had to go out on some calls, but Bobby stayed back with me. He changed into a pair of sweatpants, and put one of his shirts on me. It swam on my body, but it felt good against my battered skin. He had me lay down on the floor and he gave me a full body massage (sadly nothing more than that happened, minus a few lazy kisses). I had to admit, it helped a lot and I found myself falling asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's...been a heinously long time since I've done anything with this fic. I've had a few random comments, asking me to do more with it, wanting to know what happened next. I lost inspiration for it for quite a while, I was frustrated because I wasn't getting many reviews, I thought, I wasn't getting the response I wanted. Add that on top of the fact that I spent quite a few days in the hospital, and then had some additional healing I had to do, it went to the wayside. I wanted to get back to it though, I had the urge to come back, and I thought I owed it to myself and the ones that are enjoying this fic to at least give it a try to get back into it. I welcome all comments, CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM, questions and even ideas for things you may want to see. I hope those of you who liked this story before will come back and like it again, and I hope maybe seeing this pop up could maybe attract new readers. I guess I'll find out. I'm using this chapter as a gauge for things. I'm giving it a week to see what kind of reaction it gets and if I think there's still people wanting it to go on, then I'll continue. If not...I only really have myself to blame, I guess.


	18. Fighting And Making Love

Three weeks after the bombing and we hadn't gotten any closer to catching the Soloman's, and I was getting frustrated. I took it personally that I was targeted, and I hated to admit it was because of what Woody said to me. Why should I be getting attacked just because some stupid men had their egos handed to them because I was the one that had the biggest hand in bringing them in? That wasn't my fault and it pissed me off that I was getting the blowback that no male officer or bounty hunter would if they'd brought them in. Maybe I was on an unfair feminist kick, but I couldn't help it. It was hooking my temper that this was going on. It didn't help that ever since it happened the guys thought I needed to have a 'partner' if I was doing cases for Vinnie. 

It was like no one trusted me to do stuff on my own right now. Rationally I knew that wasn't true, but I felt like I was being treated like a little kid. The guys had ramped back up my training, and made sure I was 'suited' whenever I went out. To spite them, I spent most of my time at my desk doing searches and not going out very much. It was driving me crazy to be cooped up so much, but I wasn't about to give them the satisfaction of getting their way too much. Huh, I guess I hadn't calmed down too much from being with the guys, it had just been tampered a little. 

So I stayed at my desk and did work there, along with the training I did (although I didn't have anywhere near the enthusiasm for it this time around that I did last time) and when I went back to the apartment, the guys knew I was irritated with them. They'd tried to talk to me about it, but I reverted to my ostrich in the sand act and refused, ignoring everything until it somehow went away. I was going back to old habits and it sort of made me disgusted with myself, but I didn't know what else to do right then. 

I'd just gotten through with the latest batch of searches in my inbox when I saw a shadow come over my area. I looked up and saw Lester there, giving me one of his patented panty-melting smiles. I raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to speak first...ok I raised both eyebrows, I still couldn't get the hang of that. "Hey, how's work?" 

"It's been fine, just got done with some searches." I said, my tone not friendly, but professional at least. 

Lester's hand twitched at his side but he plowed on. "So we noticed you hadn't gone out really lately, and were wondering if maybe you wanted to go get dinner tonight. We could go to that nice little seafood place...or Pino's..." 

I shook my head almost before Lester was finished talking. "I'm not really in the mood." I said honestly. "I'd rather just make myself a sandwich and stay in." 

"You can't live on sandwiches, Steph." Lester sighed. 

"I've had peanut butter and olive sandwiches for years." I pointed out. "And you just offered to take me to Pino's...a sub place." 

"They have pizza, too." Lester muttered, seeing he wasn't getting anywhere with me. "Well...I tried." He turned and walked off and I had to admit, a piece of my heart broke off as I watched his retreating back. I know I got myself into this, but a part of me wished he fought me a little more on things. 

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and I was able to just check out in my mind as I did my work. Once I noticed it was after 5 PM, I shut down my computer, put the rest of what I'd gotten done in the out going box on my desk and rode upstairs, taking a deep breath to steel myself as I walked inside. I heard a couple of the guys talking quietly in the kitchen so I slipped into the bedroom to change. After all of us had gotten together officially, Tank approved renovations to the place and we'd turned three of the bedrooms into one massive bedroom, and then the others were guest rooms if we ever had guests (my nieces came to stay sometimes, the guys helping them on their self-defense still). 

I dug out my rattiest pajamas, which consisted of a Budweiser t-shirt that was one washing away from disintegrating in the washer, and a pair of pajama pants that had Elmo all over them, not exactly sexy. I walked out after stalling for way too long and sat on the couch, grabbing my cell to see if I had any messages. I had a few texts from Lula catching me up on what had been going on at the office, and after replying to them, I didn't have much else to do. 

I looked up as Bobby walked into the room and gave me a smile. "Didn't want to go out tonight, Steph? Come on, it's been a while, you have to be feeling cooped up. I know we are." 

"I'm not keeping anyone from going out." I pointed out, proud that I kept most of the attitude out of my voice, even though I wanted to unleash all the Jersey Girl in me. 

Bobby sighed and sat down. "What's wrong with you lately? You've not been acting like yourself." 

"Nothing's wrong with me, I just don't want to go out." I said, turning my head to roll my eyes. 

"You know it's not that." Bobby said. "You've been moody ever since the bombing." 

"I'm fine." I said, folding my arms over my chest. 

"You know I got a call from Connie, you have some skips waiting." Bobby tried another tactic. "Why don't we go tomorrow, and I'll help you look the files ov..." 

"Or you could just go get them yourself and grab them." I cut him off, shooting him a look. 

Bobby stared at me in shock for several seconds before understanding came over his face. I looked away, hearing him sigh. "You're mad because we want you to keep one of us with you while you go out." He hit the nail on the head which only pissed me off even more. 

I jumped out of my seat even before I was aware I wanted to move, and sent him the full extent of my Burg glare. I had to admit, he only winced a bit before steeling himself. "I'm pissed off because you're treating me like a child!" I exploded, pointing at him. "I've been going out on my own and getting skips for years now, even when I had a psycho after me, and I've never had a babysitter before, I can take care of myself, I've gotten myself out of some pretty sticky situations if you don't remember, Bobby." I spit out his name like it was acid on my tongue and even I was shocked by the venom in my tone. Being cooped up was never good for me, even when I was a child and sick and my mom made me stay in bed. 

Bobby's eyes widened and he gaped at me, before he found his voice. "Is that what...Steph that's not how it is." 

"Oh then how is it then?" I asked, scowling as I folded my arms back over my chest. 

Bobby took a breath and leaned forward, his arms resting on his thighs as he looked at me with a self-deprecating smile. "Ok maybe a part of it is us being a little overprotective of you and not wanting to see you get hurt if we can help it." He admitted, cutting me off before I could lay into him again. "But that's not the only thing, baby. It's...how would you feel if one of us had a madman after us and we were going out around town, exposed, and there was the possibility they could grab us at any time?" 

That made me pause and I had a feeling Bobby was maneuvering me exactly where he wanted me. Damn it. "I'd be worried everytime you went out." I said honestly, blowing out a sigh of irritation. 

"Which is how we feel." Bobby said gently. "It's not that we don't trust you to take care of yourself, we do. We just know the Soloman's have a pretty big vendetta against you and we're worried that, even with your training, they may be able to get to you. Who knows if they'll try and grab you themselves, or if they'll send a group of guys...or even have a sniper try and take you out from a block away." He shivered at that thought and had to look down and center himself. "Maybe we've gone a little crazy, making you train your ass off again and insisting that one of us be with you when you go out to grab skips for Vinnie, but none of us want anything to happen to you." 

Just like that, the fight went out of me, and I felt horrible for how I'd been acitng toward the guys. I tried to explain myself, though, hoping I could make Bobby understand. "It's just...when I was with Joe, my job wasn't good enough for him, he thought I was bad at it, and that I should quit and get a 'safer' job, and well Ranger always shoved trackers at me and had me tailed..." 

"I understand." Bobby pulled me to him. "Both your exes were overprotective jackasses that never gave you any say in what they wanted you to do and you had to rebel against them just to get your voice heard. Hell, we shoved you right back into training without even listening to what you had to say. I'm sorry." 

"I guess under the circumstances I can understand." I said, laying fully against Bobby, trying not to cry from just the emotions of doing it again after so long of giving the guys the cold shoulder. 

Bobby took a breath and ran his fingers through my hair. "How about this." He said gently. "How about you take one of us whenever you need to go grab a skip. Just in case. We'll give you the space to do your thing your own way, but be there incase we need to be. You call the shots, we get involved as little or as much as you want. And, well...to be honest, unless you just want to, you don't really need to keep up your training as much as you have been. You're already almost on par with all of us and we've been doing this kind of thing far longer than you have." 

I thought that over and smiled a bit. I appreciated that he was trying his best to find a way to make everyone happy. "I...I can accept that." I looked up at him. 

"Good." Bobby leaned in and kissed me. "Now...how about we revisit the Pino's discussion?" 

My stomach growled loudly at that moment and I blushed when Bobby laughed. There was no way he couldn't hear it and I knew it. "I could eat." 

"Go put on a shirt I can't see your boobs through and we'll go." I looked down and noticed you could infact see my boobs and I shrugged and got up, going to put on some jeans and a Bruins jersey, putting the clothes I had on aside to put back on when I went to bed. I walked out to see the guys gathered and I locked eyes with Lester. I went to say something but he hugged me to him and kissed me, squeezing my hand before pulling me out of the apartment with them. 

We had a great time at Pinos and it felt like old times, which made me tear up anytime I thought about it. Lester instigated a game of pool, me and him vs Bobby, Vince and Woody. I thought that was unfair, but it turns out, I knew how to flirt enough that it threw the other guys off their game so badly that Lester and I wound up winning. Who knew that me playing with a straw would be so distracting? 

Once we got our fill of Pino's, we went home and the guys wasted no time in pulling me to the bedroom to have their wicked way with me. But the joke was on them, considering the fact that round one consisted of Lester and Bobby making me feel good while Vince and Woody had their own fun. Round two, after a brief time to rest, was me, Vince and Woody having our own fun. Round three I had to get creative, since the guys seemed to be pretty tired out. They came alive again for rounds four and five, but six and seven was a little halfhearted before we all collapsed in a sweaty heap and fell asleep. I was never kidding when I told people about my Hungarian hormones, I just wished I could brag that I had exhausted four grown ex-army Rangers. Maybe when I go to the office and see Connie and Lula again, if I could convince my partner to wait for me in the car. 

What? Girls could gossip like guys did about their conquests. We were just less crude about it...mostly.

Sometimes?


	19. Lester All Wet

The next morning, when the alarm went off, I was a little amused (and more than a little smug) when the guys had trouble dragging themselves out of bed. But to be fair, we hadn't gotten everything out of our system until around 2 AM and it was a little before 5 AM. I was just glad no one expected me to get up and go to the gym before work. So once they left to go to work about thirty minutes later, I rolled over and went back to sleep, pulling a pillow that smelled like my guys to me as I burrowed into the warm spot they'd left behind. 

Once the clock chimed 9, I dragged myself out of bed, and showered. I changed the sheets since we hadn't gotten around to it the night before and put the old ones in to be washed. By someone else since everyone knew if I attempted to wash sheets that were more expensive than my entire wardrobe put together, I'd ruin them. That done, I went downstairs and sat at my desk and did the last few searches I had in my inbox before chewing on my lip and texting Lester. 'Need to head to Vinnie's for skips, care to come with?' 

It was only a few minutes before he texted me back. 'Coming, Beautiful.' My brain short circuited a bit at the simple words and I shook my head clear. You'd think I had enough the night before, but I guess after practically being celibate for three weeks I had some making up to do. I looked up when I saw Lester coming toward me and I gathered my purse and walked over to meet him. We got on the elevator to go down after he pulled me to it and he pulled me to him and kissed me. "If I wasn't feeling like a drugged bull right now, I'd take you right here, right now." He mumbled huskily. 

I swatted him and pushed him back a bit. "There's a camera in here." I pointed out. 

Lester grinned salaciously at me. "Don't worry, I'd make sure the only view they got was my bare ass."

Men. 

I grunted and rolled my eyes as we went to the SUV Lester was driving and got in. He drove us to the office and I convinced him to sit and wait for me by saying Lula had texted me that she was on the rag something fierce. Good to know there were men smart enough to be afraid of Lula on her period. When I walked in, I saw Lula in the middle of telling Connie about some show she'd watched called Naked and Afraid. 

"You know I could do that show." She insisted. "I mean what do you gotta do? Be naked in an exotic place with a hot guy there with you for a few days? Sounds like damn paradise to me. I always thought I had one of those faces for tv, don't you think?" 

Connie and I shared a look. 

Truth be told, Lula was very attractive. She was just...full figured. No shame, I'm all for body positivity, and I had my moments of not exactly being able to button my jeans. I just thought Lula didn't know exactly what she'd be getting herself into trying to be cast for a show like that. Besides, Lula trying to survive in the wild was like me trying to eat nothing but salads for a month, it's a bad idea waiting to happen. I did have to spare a thought that it'd be great tv, though. 

When Lula noticed me, she lit up. "Hey, White Girl!" She waved, causing a near disaster with the zebra print tube top she'd stuffed herself into. She'd paired it with a pair of lime green spandex pants and a bright red jacket. "Been a while since we seen you around these parts." 

I hid a wince as I sat down. "Yeah I decided to stick around Rangeman for a while and work out of the office there." It wasn't a complete lie and I didn't have to have any awkward talks about exactly why that was.

"Well Vinnie's been having a coronary." Connie slid a sizeable amount of files over to me, and I noticed only a third of them were marked with the Rangeman stickers she'd taken to putting on the files since more often than not I took them to the office there with me. I had a little thrill go through me, before I glanced at Connie. "Don't worry, Vinnie didn't slip you any crazy ones, I went through them myself. Most of them are regulars." 

"Good." I sighed in relief. "I don't think my boys would let him get by with pulling that again without him suffering an unfortunate accident." 

Connie snorted. "No one would point fingers if he was put into traction, just saying." 

I laughed at that. "Noted." I picked the files up. "I should probably get started on these." 

"I was hoping you'd say that." Lula stood up. "I need to get out of this damn place, let's go catch us some bad guys." 

I looked over at her, my mind going a mile a minute. "Actually, Lula, I came with Lester and..." 

"Oh good, we got some muscle with us incase one of them decides to get a little crazy and handsy." She was on her way to the door as I sat there, staring, imagining all the ways this was going to come and bite me in the ass. Things didn't look good. 

When I caught up with Lula, I saw Lester in the driver side of the SUV looking horrified as she power walked her way over to it. I sent him an apologetic look and prayed that today wouldn't be so bad. 

Once I got in and Lula got settled in the back, I set the Rangeman files aside and glanced through the files, hoping we could waste time picking up Mooner or something. When he wasn't a part of the files, I made a face. "Mooner's not been taken in recently?" I asked Lula, wondering if she had any gossip for me. Usually it was like clockwork with him. 

"Girl you ain't heard?" Lula asked. "Mooner's gone and went straight. Least that's what he told me when I went by his place a while back." She glanced at Lester. "Social call. Anyway, apparently his parents are real rich, like you'd think he'd tell us something this important, us being his friends and all, spend a real good amount of time with him and everything and he can't be bothered to tell us his parents is loaded? I feel real indignant about that." 

The thing about Mooner was, I liked the guy. I enjoyed his company even. But calling him a friend was probably pushing it considering all I knew about him was his name and that he preferred to be called Mooner. And well his address. Beyond that, not much else. 

"Anyway." Lula pulled me out of my thoughts. "His parents are getting on in age and they're leaving him a pretty big nest egg, but the catch is he has to pass all kinds of random drug tests. So he's done with the Mary Jane."

"Huh." I mumbled, a little taken off guard by that. "Well...good for him." I looked through the files and when I ran out of options I gave Lester an apologetic look. "I guess we could go after Mr. Bernardryl." 

"Who's that?" He asked, cocking his head. "What's he wanted for?" 

"Oh is he the one that's always naked when we go and pick him up?" Lula asked, causing Lester to swerve a bit, before he got control of the car again. 

"Yeah that's him." I muttered, looking over at Lester. "He's always taken in for the same thing: being nude in public and waving his private parts at women. Everytime we go by and nab him, he's naked and hosed down. It's like wrestling a greased pig." 

Lester gulped. "Are you sure there's no one else we could go after? A nice felon maybe. Domestic assault?" 

"A few others I'd rather do more research on to make a plan on how to nab them first." I admitted. 

Lester steeled himself and nodded, asking for the address before heading that way. 

Once we got there, Nestor Bernardryl was waiting on us and when he saw Lester with us once he opened the door, he beamed. "Oh did you bring a new challenge for me, ladies?" 

Lester valiantly kept his eyes above the waist on the man, which was hard considering...parts of Mr. Bernardryl was as well. It was like watching a hynotic snake, like in that Disney movie. "Now listen, dude, you come in real nice and easy and I can promise to get you bonded out quick." 

"Now where's the fun in that?" Mr. Bernardryl asked, and took off further in his home. Lester groaned and gave chase. 

When we got home later on, Lester was soaking wet and looked like a grumpy bulldog. Bobby looked up from the couch and cocked his head. "What..." 

"I don't want to talk about it." Lester said, toeing off his shoes. 

"Les, you're all we..." Bobby tried again. 

"I said I don't want to talk about it!" Lester barked. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to scald myself in a shower."

I watched Lester walk off and when I heard the bathroom door shut, I dissolved into hysterical giggles, having to sit on the floor before I fell and brained myself. Once I got myself under control, I explained to Bobby why I was laughing so hard and why Lester was all wet and before long both of us had tears streaming down our faces.

**Author's Note:**

> Read and review, please. I love reviews, even if it's a simple "good job". If you want to criticize, then please do so in a constructive way, otherwise it will be ignored. There's no need for being rude as I'm sure you wouldn't want someone to be that way toward you.


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